WOW, there is a big fish now available to the highest bidder!
The fact that he was cut will likely bring down the price....
And he is 32....
As SJ Green showed if you are past your prime you can still be an awesome contributor.
And he is a pretty good receiver! If he is available at a decent price, oh yeahhhhhhh !!!!
EDM GM trades for large contracts in 35 yr old John Chick and 30 yr old CJ Gable at the end of last year and then 3 months later he suddenly realizes he can't keep Bowman and Odell Willis. :o
Good trades by Tillman/Austin clearing about $250K off our cap, get a 2nd round pick and 2 neg listers
When will players learn not to sign contracts with big off season bonuses, when they all get cut before said bonus. I'm really getting tired of hearing about these guys getting screwed over.
Probably not "all". I'm guessing a very small minority get cut. If you hear about 10 it sounds like a lot, but for all we know there are hundreds of players receiving off-season bonuses. Unless you have different information on this than I do.
And the reason is as follows: the bonuses force teams to commit prior to the start of the free agency period. If you're going to get cut for salary cap reasons, better to know now when you have the best chance of catching on with another team, rather than finding out just before or just after training camp.
(I also hear there are tax reasons to prefer more up-front money, but that's way less interesting to me.)
Bowman drops almost as many passes as Gable. Difference is that’s job #3 for Gable after running and blocking, whereas it’s really Bowman’s only job. He piles up stats and led the league one year but I have never considered him a top receiver in the CFL, for reliability reasons.
Edmonton was going all in on a Grey Cup run. That's what you do when you want to win a championship NOW.
Bowman will end up in Saskatchewan, another team that is taking on huge amounts of salary (Collaros, Hughes, Jefferson) to wina championship NOW.
I like the player, but we are no where near being GC contenders. (I realize anything can happen)
Would prefer to get younger players that can be groomed.
So don't sign good players to get better because we aren't close....HMMMMMM.
The CFL is always for the now. 2 years and good players can leave. Load up and go for it. ALWAYS!!!
Exactly . The team from Toronto wasn't considered being even close to a play-off contender let alone a GC contender before the season started last year....and we all know how that worked out now don't we.
Now saying all that I'm not sure if we really have room or a need for a Bowman in our lineup at this time . You never know though , things can change in a hurry if we somehow don't re-sign Tasker or if maybe Toliver isn't ready to start the season or we get an ill timed injury or two along the way to some of our other pencilled in starters then suddenly a guy like Bowman would look great in black "n" gold.
Personally I honestly don't think that Bowman will wind up here . My thinking is that he signs and winds up playing somewhere in the West with either Saskatchewan , B.C or Winnipeg . A hunch says it will be the Lions who get him now that Hervey is running the show out there and is familiar with Bowman from his days in Edmonton .
No chance we sign him, He was making $265K, That kind of coin can get us a couple of choice FA's
I would much rather have Tasker and Dionte Spencer with that money
I like your strategy. I hope it works out that way.
Grover wants hisDionte Spencer toy for Christmas don’t you.
That is one area that we were very weak in last season.
I do however have high hopes for Willie Quinn to be our in-house Dionte hopefully.
How is Saskatchewan loading up on talent, and still managing to stay under the cap? Is there someway players can "defer" salary over a longer period, say for example (and I am just making up round numbers to cover up bad math skills), a $100,000 salary for this year, but paid as $25,000 over four years? Or like the old NCAA trick, sign a player to a college scholarship and then have an alumnus give him an off-season 'job' for several thousand bucks over and above.
It looks like Edmonton got boxed with Chick and Gable, resulting in the loss of Bowman and Willis, and maybe that is the trick - sign them up for big signing bonuses payable in the second year, but then cut them before the bonus has to be paid? Seems a bit shady, and you'd think something players, the CFLPA, or an agent would know about and be cautious about.
If anything it sounds like Bowman is a really good guy and just an all round good person . I've posted a story from 3DN written by D.Edwards about what Bowman meant to a six year old little girl fan of his and how among other things how he actually showed up at her birthday party . Olivia was quite upset when she found out that her buddy Adarius was cut from the Eskimos .
Enjoy . It's stories like this that make me proud to be such a big fan of this league . 
There is no “grooming? or long term rebuilding necessary in CFL. As we have seen many a time, a team can be in last place one year and then contend or win it all the next. All about who you sign and chemistry. So I say, go for all the marbles this year.
What a great story Bobo. Bowman made that little girl's day for sure! It is gratifying to read stories like that. Thanks.
Normally i would agree with 150Gage - but the turnaround by our team last year was nothing like i have ever seen in the CFL. You could argue we were the best team in the league the 2nd half of the year.
There's no reason we cant win the east this coming season. Im not making a prediction, i'm saying we are just as good as Toronto and Ottawa.