Buck Pierce released

...LaPolice has said he's not interested in Pierce at this time.....NOT INTERESTED in a bona-fide starter....hmmmmm have we got another Kelly ....LaPo says the starters job is open and Jyles had not been anointed.....oh...IF that is the case then why not bring in some legitimate competition like Pierce....otherwise if the move is not made for Pierce and at least 'considered', i'm going to look at this as just so much lip service ,by LaPolice ,and all bull$hit as far as an anointing is concerned.. :wink:

He can come be DD's backup in SK.

Jyles out...Pierce in. A nice upgrade all 'round.

there goes the neighbourhood

I don't understand why LaPolice and Barker are so dead set against bringing in a CFL veteran to push the kids in TC and provide some mentorship if that veteran is able to stick past TC. Where would Hamilton have been last season if they hadn't gotten Glenn to back up Porter?

It is truly a puzzler.

We saw last season in Winnipeg what happens when you go into the season with a group of young, untested pivots. . .and those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

That said, even a CFL experienced pivot would have had difficulty making Kelly's offence work. . . so it's probably not a fair comparison.

Of Winnipeg's 4 QBs, obviously LaPolice is fairly confident that one of them will step up this year like Durant did last year in Saskatchewan.

As to what Barker is thinking in Toronto, I have no clue at all.

....it's simply looks like either the cupboard is bare (or totally cleaned out) orrrrrrr we're playing the waiting game to get Pierce for a reasonable amount orrrrrrrr we have a starter already in the qbs.we have.....Funny though, i see the same situation as last year.....Trying to 'wing it' with unproven talent at the pivot spot....IF all doesn't go well the first few games...I can see an urgent call going out AGAIN and a whole lot of empty seats at Canadinns... :thdn:

Don’t panic yet papa.

Yes you have unproven talent at the QB spot, as you did last season.

Big difference this time is that LaPolice is installing the offensive package. . . not Mike Kelly.

So this year’s QBs have a much better chance of success.

Kenny Ploen couldn’t have made Kelly’s offence work. . .

.....Well it IS pretty difficult to duplicate that debacle of last year as far as our offence goes....LaPo could just limp along and do better than the 'professor of football' HOWEVER that is going to be a small consolation ,to the long suffering fans of the BigBlue....I hope i don't have to break out the Gibsons finest too early into the year, while watching our boys.. :lol:

Nothing stopping you from breaking out the Gibson’s finest to celebrate a win or two, papa !!

…well i’m glad you’re predicting at least a couple of wins for us…that’s more than the guy who had his thread removed…i think he said we’d go 0-16… on that thought…I think i better get a case of the Finest… :lol: :lol:

I would say the obvious in reference to what most everyone else has been saying. Schedule him for a first rate physical!! Then if he passes with flying colors then offer him a reasonable contract,incentive laden to be sure. I would love to have an injury free Buck Pierce attending our training camp. Surgeons and other specialists know a heck of a lot more than we ever will so lets see what transpires. I'd hate to see a talent like Pierce go to the Argos or any other team if we didn't do our due dilligence first!! If LaPolice only wants four QBs in camp then find a taker for LeFors or release him. I'd be quite happy going to camp with Jyles,Pierce,Santos and Dimichele.

Madjack, you mentioned the situation in Saskatchewan last season and it was pretty much exactly the same regarding the untested nature of their QBs. I think the schemes had more to do with the problems in Winnipeg last season than the QBs.

I can't disagree with that. No QB would have been successful in that offence, regardless of their level of experience. Wasn't Lefors quoted after the season as saying basically that no one on the team could understand what Kelly's offence was designed to do? That speaks volumes.

Sometimes I wonder whether players aren’t as smart today. When those schemes were originally used I don’t recall hearing players saying they were complicated or hard to understand. I’m not saying they should be used now but I just don’t understand why they seem like rocket science for today’s football player.

As if they’d say anything to that effect while the season was still on and Kelly was still the coach. :lol: Come now, you know better. Intelligence has nothing to do with it.

I'm not saying they should be used now but I just don't understand why they seem like rocket science for today's football player.
IMO it's simply a very diplomatic way of saying that the schemes were utter garbage.

Honestly, Eric Wilson came right out and said that it was easy to read what the Bombers were doing pre-snap. Kelly thought he could coach the offense like it was 1995, and it failed miserably.

I wasn't referring to current players speaking out about them during the season. I was referring to former players/coaches who used the schemes years ago (Dunigan, Flutie, Hugh Campbell and others) who said last season that they work - they understood them when they were playing.

Apparently the reason the schemes were easy to defend was because the offensive players had no idea what they were doing which is why I'm questioning whether players today are as smart. If players 10 years or 15 years ago had no problem understanding the schemes why was it like teaching rocket science for today's players. Are offenses so dumbed down now that anything different (for today's players) or difficult can't be learned by players. Who knows... maybe if the players had understood them they would have executed them better and they wouldn't have been so easy to defend.

You may be on to something there.

Back in the day, waaay back when MadJack first started watching CFL football, each team’s QB called his own plays. Now no QB does. . . I wonder if maybe the fact that they are spoon fed the plays atrophies their minds? Something worth considering I suppose. . .

was that really the same system back then though? just cause kelly called them then and again last year doesnt mean the offense was designed the same way, despite what mike said... im a youngin so i cant personally recollect those days but i asked a few family members (long time season ticket holders) and they said they certainly didnt recognize a lot of the unique formations and gimmicks last years offense was using....

maybe some routes and formations were the same/similar, but with how the game has evolved i highly doubt that he was shaping last years offense after his offenses from over a decade ago, just my opinion tho

Flutie and Dunigan said they were the same schemes they used when they played IIRC.

alright. well it is very possible.. players may very well have been trained on simpler systems in recent years and are not able to execute more complex offenses, a very interesting point indeed .. and maybe it was only certain packages and plays that players found confusing last year, we as fans dont really know the whole story behind this "crazy playbook" to me a lot of the motion used wasnt familiar but who knows. either way it didnt work with the players we had last year, when matsakis took over we started to develope a bit of production... hopefully lapolice builds a formula around the talent and type of players we have now.