$175k for Nick Moore?!? Come on Winnipeg...

LOL, you totally missed the point. Don’t feel badly though, the Lemonade Salesman and his buddy that are bumbling their way through the front office don’t get it either.

There’s no end of young American receivers sitting around just waiting for a chance to play. You can ALWAYS find rookie NI receivers who are glad to sign for the minimum salary - - like Inman, and Chiles, and Carter, and Taj, and Ellingson - - and will put up better numbers than a mediocre player like Moore or Price.

If they turn out to be a Fred Stamps or Jamal Richardson or SJ Green calibre receiver, of course lock them up to a big contract. But anything less than superstar level receiver let them walk and bring in the next batch of young NIs for minimum salary.

Brining in rookie FAs that can ball takes a but of scouting effort. but you see what kind of production is possible from minimum salary receivers. Overpaying a bunch of easily replaceable guys like Moore & Price is a lazy way to assemble a roster. You get what you pay for. And that means yet another year of embarrassing mediocrity in Winnipeg.

Ah, my bad. You’re right. And I guess it speaks to the prosperity of the league that salaries are starting to slide up.

At any rate, you're exactly right. He's going to have to perform or else he won't see the 2nd year of the deal. If he and Willy can click on the field it will be money well spent.
Yup. Winnipeg absolutely HAS to have a decent offense this year. The O has been moribund since Doug Berry and Kevin Glenn were turfed. The goal should be to get that offense above flatline by any means necessary. They can worry about Moore's salary after the season's over...

OK from that perspective there is some validity to the fact that there are import receivers that can play, same for import RBs - dime a dozen looking for work. But not all import receivers stand out in their first years. Half of them will never understand the waggle and won’t make it past the first preseason game. Moore’s breakout year last year was what, his 3rd or 4th in the CFL? I can bet that if Inman wants back in the CFL if things don’t pan out in his NFL quest, he’ll get a good payday too. Same with Ellingson next year. Chiles will too if he continues with his 2nd year. With this contract the bombers obviously feel his career is on the upswing and his game could elevate amongst the top guys in the league. BC was willing to pay him a high price too, probably some of the other teams were somewhere in between that $160 from BC and the $175 from Wpg. And you have to consider that they don’t want to saddle a first time starting QB with inexperienced rookies to throw the ball too. Time will tell if they were right or made a mistake. If it was a mistake then they’ll pull out the eraser next offseason.

While I feel as though the Bombers over-payed a bit for Moore, the cap is going up for next season and that will end up being the going rate for a #1 receiver in the CFL, which let's be honest Moore is going to be in Winnipeg.

Well area 51 I guess the price of starting receivers just went up? As others around the league will want to be paid a similar salary. Good for the Bombers to show their fans that they are not afraid to spend some money. Remember they do not have a 450,000.00 QB so they can hire three more receivers like Moore and hope their 150,000 QB can get them the ball. They should keep on spending if they want to get back to being a respectable club again. The salary cap is just a suggestion anyway as many teams including your Argos spend well over the cap without penalty as as there are many ways to hide the money.

Every team over-pays for someone or few etc.
I remember when the Argos signed Foley after his NFL try-outs, not only did he snub the Lions, but IMO was grossly overpaid, especially considering he didn't do much.

Here comes the blaming of Jones and Garber for Foley's lack of production. :roll:

...as a little aside to Nick Moore signing...he works out in the off-season with Drew Willy....they like to play pass and catch...To say they are accustomed to each others nuances would be accurate :wink: I think they'll have a nice jump before the season starts AND another reason besides the cash he became a Bomber :wink:

Winnipeg had a great run in 2011, and even 2010 tells a deceptive story today. There were a LOT of close games that season and 2009 there were fighting, but just couldn't finish (mainly because their offence was the Fred Reid show).

The problem was, after 2011, Winnipeg seems to have thrown in the towel during free agency. They needed a quarterback last year, EVERYONE was saying you can't rely on Buck Pierce as your starter, and they did nothing. In fact, they cut Alex Brink and Joey Elliot, which is pretty much how a franchises

Everyone said from the moment Buck Pierce got hurt AGAIN, they needed a new QB and look how late to the gate they were this year? I don't care what O'Shea says, Willy might be more experienced the Collaros, but there is no way he was their #1 pick.

Now the anchor of their defence, Henoc Muwamba is going down south, they've made zero signings to replace him in Free agency. What have they instead done in Free agency? Gone after some decent Sask receivers to go with their QB and done nothing to address their O.Line issues.

It really sucks for Winnipeg right now, and it's going to continue to suck because the way that team has been turning players, coaches and managers over, means no one wants to sign there for cheap. Us in Hamilton have been there, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Anyways I don't think I'd pay that kinda money for Moore. I mean he's good, but that's Andy Fantuz money for an import.

According to Vancouver newspaper, BC was offering closer to $50,000 probably because American receivers are easy to replace. Moore wanted $160,000. Winnipeg and Hamilton have chosen to spend less on young quarterbacks so that they can spend more on support personnel. Every team is limited by salary cap to minimize harmful bidding wars.

Do you mean $150,000? Because $50,000 would be below the league minimum for a rookie and nobody could offer that.

From what I understand their offer this morning was $150K. Later in the day after the other deals starting coming in, from what I read he came back to BC and asked if they would up their offer and they supposedly did to 160K and he was considering taking the higher value contract or the lower one to stay with the Lions and in the end the $ won him over. But who knows.

To spend that money on an import wr is just plain stupid! Bombers are going to be just as bad as they were last year with stupid moves like this and not getting a proper quarterback as drew willey is fit to be a back up in this league. I feel sorry for mike oshea that he has to coach this sorry football team.

....I'll mark this thread so as I can bring it back during the season AND, we'll see how this all works out... :wink: I think Nick Moore is going to be one of the better signings of the year :wink

Moore was a good receiver for the Lions. He did manage to drop some easy passes though.

That might be a blessing in disguise for the Bombers. Perhaps those inexperienced QB's will throw some off target passes and Moore wont have any easy ones to drop! :wink:

With the Bombers rebuilding, this could be a good fit.

He slots in as their #1 receiver. If he can give them 1300 yards or more it will work out. They are paying based on projection. Worst case they will renegotiate or cut him next year. Risk is zero.

Isn't it about time the better players get their just reward and especially with a substantial increase in the cap.

Here's the 411 on Nick Moore. I watched him for 3 years, the first two of which he struggled with the dropsies (but fewer each successive year). While he had some drops in 2013, he also made some spectacular, circus catches. What was frustrating to Lions fans is he seemed to make the difficult catches look easy, and the easy throws difficult.

Fast but not exceptionally fast, yet silky smooth and a good route runner. Can find the open space. Often though, does not "compete" hard enough for contested balls. Courtney Taylor was much more adept at that.

To Area 51's point, $170K or $175K for an import receiver after one solid season is too much IMHO. Most Lions fans would have capped him out at about $130K, so I am a little surprised Wally went even higher after his "final offer" of $150K. His issues are between the ears. It will be interesting to see how he'll perform with the pressure of the fishbowl environment in Winnipeg as the unequivocal #1 "big ticket" receiver.

Thanks for the synopsis. Even as a bomber fan I too agree he’s been overpaid at the figure on his contract, especially since he’s only managed to put up big numbers for one year. But it is what it is, management obviously feels his career is trending upwards and felt they had to pay what they did to make him sign on the dotted line here. It’s only a 2 year deal, not a huge commitment from either side.

Going into 2013 there was a some pressure on the young receivers to step up after Simon was sent packing. Could he have been even better if Lulay stayed healthy all season? It’ll be interesting to see how he plays this year for sure, whether he can continue to build off of last season or if he crumbles under the weight of the contract and expectations. Term of the deal, for 2 years, would put him at what, around 29 yrs of age when it expires, so maybe he’s looking for one more shot at the NFL? Hopefully he’s motivated and puts up 2 good years.

That is a good point. There’s no doubt Moore would have had even more yards if Lulay had been healthy for the full season and we didn’t have an inexperienced Thomas DeMarco under center for a portion of it. Keep in mind though, Moore played the “Rover” position in Chapdelaine’s offense which set him up to see more balls thrown his way than any other (receiver). That was Geroy’s old spot.

Moore did have some NFL tryouts in January (I believe it was 3). There were no takers, so he came back to Canada. Not sure if he will try that route again. I somehow doubt it.

He's one of those high-risk high reward type players. As previously mentioned, the guy shows glimpses of brilliance on one play, then drops a pass that a high school JV player would make. $175,000 seems a bit high, but with the cap set to go higher, that may be the new norm for a receiver of his caliber so who knows

Good idea. In the meantime, let’s see how some of my previous assessments on the Bombers “all worked out”.

From February 2012…

From August 2012…

From September 2013…