this thought is based on the trading of CP and allocating those dollars to the market.
i really think that rob murphy is the way to go to make an impact and in doing so the process begins to show other players that ham. is serious about a)winning and b)changing the losing culture by bringing in guys that come from those types of teams.so if you give murphy $200,000, you maybe look at another tackle in fritz out of mtl. i really think you can upgrade the rest of the O side of the ball through camp because realistically with p-rod and KK getting a full camp, another solid year from hage and the return of gagne-marcoux- they're right there...offensively.
defense is another story but proven leadership from the DC will bring out talents in guys you didn't know they had. a winner in the middle with otis, the emergence of knowlton, a solid secondary and the hopeful maturing of barker at free. hey don't forget throwing some of that green at the bulldozer from san diego in haywood-you got a decent squad.
to recap-they already said they were going to be aggressive so here's my list'
1-murphy
2-fritz
3-haywood
do you want thelwell?
Were I to be employed in the Cats' front office, I'd agree with that list, and in that order I would pursue them.
As for Thelwell, I'd sure take a flyer on him to see what he has left in the tank. He was pretty good in BC, but has been more or less the forgotten man in Calgary. It's always good to have non-import depth. So I'd sign him, if it turns out he is well past his 'best before' date and the team has other Canadian receivers who are equal to or better than he is at this stage of his career, then you release him after training camp. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
We need more Canadian receivers but Thelwell was invisible in Calgary.
I will have to take a look but we should see how old these guys are? I don't want to get into a situation where we have guys in their 30s locked up for 2-3 years. I know they can get cut but look at the mess Toronto is in right now.
Obie made it clear last year that he wants younger guys. We only had 2 or 3 guys in their 30s last year. Already we have signed Floyd who is 32 but have a 1 year deal in place.
I want this team to be together and built for a 5-6 year run not a 2-3 year run. If we win 6 games this year and somehow make the playoffs, I would be content with that knowing we are building for the future. I don't want have these guys for a year or 2 or 3, figure out they are too old for the team, play has gone down and we are out on the street trying to find their replacements.
Correct me if I am wrong but I don't recall Haywood being on the list of potential free agents so we would have to trade for him? I personally would be looking to OB to find someone else who is younger and bigger in the US.
dear crafty...dinner, ya haywood is free and you can almost put the house on the fact he'll be a tiger-cat the 16th-you heard it here first. i think thelwell, use properly and shoot, go ahead and add giguere cuz you can never have too many but is woodcock really that much better? i'm thinking of the height factor and how many times p-rod on his own played like moss and went up and took the ball away from db's-isn't that just one of the advantages we want? don't kid yourself,thelwell is still a very serviceable guy,plus he won't be the 5th read here,he wasn't the 5th read in bc either but he was last year in cal.
also while we're on the subject-please push NML at camp-there's gotta be some other end out there waiting to take his job-trade for another marshall guy-kai ellis... something cuz status quo is just not good enough there.
I guess I stand corrected, however, to be correct he was released on December 1st [url]Winnipeg Free Press. I searched all the forums to find no reference to an actual article referring to his release nor anything found on TSN, or cfl.ca