Free Agents

Does anyone know who our free agents are at the end of the year are? Or if there will be anything on the market we can try and target? I know its early but we can start the who stays who leaves game.

That I know of Desrivaux, Deslauriers, Taylor, Flory, Duval, MacPherson, Leak, (probably a few on defense as well).

Chip Cox is in the last year (option I think) of his contract.
Now he would be a huge loss.

Some of the possible free agents include:
Damon Duval,S.J. Green,Larry Taylor,Martin Bédard,Anwar Stewart,Jerald Brown,Anthony Calvillo,Danny Desriveaux,Ramon Guzman,Chip Cox. I think that Eric Wilson will also become a free agent. Also Avon Cobourne.

They exclude:
Scott Flory. On december 17,2008, he signed a new 2 year agreement +1 year option.2011 will be his option year.
Adriam McPherson signed a 2 year extension in 2009. Like Flory,2011 will be his option year. I would not be surprised if he signs an extension, in the coming off-season. He will be with us in 2011,atleast.

Richard

IMO the top priorities are Cox, Green, Duval, and Taylor, in that order. I exclude Calvillo from this list because I think it’s pretty clear that it’s either one more year with the Als or retirement for him. Not like we have to worry about him suddenly jumping ship for the Argos. :lol: Cahoon would fall into the same category as Calvillo.

Guzman and Brown could be worth re-signing, but in the latter case, I would like Popp to bring in some talent at training camp to push the secondary.

If Cahoon retires, Desriveaux might become a bit more involved in the team’s offense. However, I still can’t see him becoming a starter with Green and Hawkins having become bigger parts of the offense. Bedard is a serviceable ST player and shouldn’t be too hard to re-sign.

The most interesting case is Anwar Stewart. I love the guy, and I’m sure I’m not alone. He’s a warrior with a lot of heart, he never stops working, he’s done great things for us in the past, and he’s one of the faces of the franchise. But time is catching up with him. Think how fearsome our defense could be if we had a bigger, more athletic body type at the rush end spot opposite Bowman. I’m not sure which way the team will go, but I hope that we at least entertain the possibility of platooning Anwar with another end or trying to find a game-breaker from the U.S. college ranks.

Pour remplacer Stewart, ça va prendre un gars au moins aussi bon que Bowman. Disons que ça pousse pas dans les arbres. On a vu passer quelques joueurs de ligne défensive (Campbell, Smith, pour ne nommer que ceux-là) et ils n’ont pas fait l’affaire. Il faudra un effort de recrutement de ce côté aussi.

On disait que la présence de Williams aidait Wilson, Stewart et Bowman à bien paraître. À regarder la saison de Williams, je me demande si ce n’était pas le contraire, après tout? En tout cas, McElveen et Bekasiak font aussi du bon boulot avec ces gars-là, alors peut-être qu’ils constituent somme toute la réponse à cette question.

With 2 cups in a row, I have a feeling that Popp will have alot of free agents, agents kocking on our door.

Well something tells me that Duval isn’t on your list anymore ! :lol:

:D Indeed.

Actually, scratch Taylor from that list too. Cox and Green are the priorities.

I'm hoping that the free agents, after a 2nd GC, would want to stay with a winning team. This will likely mean renegotiating their contracts (for more money, obviously), and Als management having to delicately deal with the salary cap issue. The word "dynasty" was being liberally thrown around in the wake of the Als' victory, and perhaps these players feel that there may indeed be a new one in the making. That's a legacy I think they would all want to leave behind them.

There is one potential dark cloud on the horizon, however - AC!!! For all that has been said, AC has been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in football in Montreal, and for that matter in the CFL. Let's hope his surgery and subsequent rehabilitation is 100% successful and that he returns next year. He sounded like he was leaning that way in interviews, but we'll have to see how things play out in the coming weeks and months. For that matter, Cahoon sounded like he might also consider a return. Was it not Trestman who wrote or said something to the effect that the addition of even one new player changes the entire team? Let's hope we get our warriors back - at least the key ones who led us to this GC! There will definitely be some changes next year, but I hope that we can keep our team intact and that Popp can negotiate trades, or work his magic once more and find outstanding talent for us.

According to Herb, the Als have 13 potential free agents; these players are: Anthony Calvillo,Chris Leak,Avon Cobourne,Danny Desriveaux,S.J. Green,Andrew Hawkins,J.P. Bekasiak,Shawn Mayne,Anwar Stewart,Chip Cox,Jerald Brown,Martin Bédard and Damon Duval.

Herb mentions that Chip Cox,S.J.Green, Jermaine McElveen and Adrian MacPherson could "try" the NFL. I don't anticipate Jermaine and Adrian testing the NFL. Chip and S.J. are the 2 players that will/should receive the highest increase from the Als,provided they don't test the NFL.

I definitely don't think that all our free agents will be signed although I am optimistic that most will return. To me, the first players signed should be,excluding Anthony for medical reasons,Chris Leak,Avon Cobourne,Danny Desriveaux,J.P. Bekasiak,Jerald Brown and Martin Bédard. If Damon Duval signs, it will be at a much reduced salary and as an insurance should"new players" don't do better than him. It costs nothing to sign him and it is an insurance. He does not have to much bargaining power.

Richard

Nobody's mentioned it so I will:

A huge factor....both in keeping free agents and in returning potential retirees is the status of Marc Trestman.

While we all hope he stays for a decade or more...it's hard to imagine him having much more to prove in this league...
I don't doubt he's being "short-listed' all over the states as we speak.

Winning is the best motivator i know of
If Trestman leaves we might be in for "instant-parity"
In the East...at least.

You could be right but,personnally, I don't expect Marc Trestman to leave the Als,at least not until his agreement expires after 2012. I could be wrong but, if he does leave,I will definitely loose respect/admiration I have for him.

Only time will tell and,yes,there will be "rumeurs" during the off-season but I say he will be with the Als, along with Anthony and Ben ,when the 2011 season begins.

Richard

That's something I truly lament about the CFL. At the end of every season, especially if it's been a particularly successful one, or in the case of the Als, several successful seasons, there is always the chance that we lose key personnel to the NFL. I realize that most of our best players are American and that their hearts and homes are in the US, but it would be nice to be able to keep teams more or less intact from one season to the next. Players get older, injured, retire, or want to sign elsewhere. Fortunately this season, we essentially had the same team as last year. If there are major changes in the off-season - who knows???

I am 62 and don't know if I'll ever see it in my lifetime, but I hope that someday the CFL will rival hockey and other pro sports as a top-rated sport, that if will be as popular as the NFL, that we will see great stadia - jammed packed every game - in an expanded league, and that we could pay the players salaries that would rival the NFL. Well, I guess I can dream, can't I?

Jim Popp - you hve your work cut out for you! I hope you are successful re-signing our warriors, or can find suitable replacements.

Cox is kidding himself if he thinks he can stick in the NFL. The position he has here is unique to the CFL. The NFL game requires bigger, stronger bodies at all linebacker spots; he's simply undersized for the position down south. But he's also not a good enough cover man to win a spot as a pure cornerback. There's a very slim chance he catches on as a safety, but even then, I really doubt he'll stick.

The possibly strike/lock-out in the NFL next year may have as big an impact on re-signing FAs this off-season. I know there are some players who are hesitant about signing with an NFL team under the current circumstances.

De ce que j'ai lu sur Duval dans l'article de Bujold ce matin, son chien est mort.

JKM, while I agree with the desire to see our league get more respect and keep its talent, I will say that I do not want to see our players become spoiled, overpaid millionaires a la NFL, NHL, MLB, etc.

Football is a game. The opportunity to play it for a living should be a privilege, not a way to be financially set for life. What I respect the most about our CFL athletes is how they dedicate themselves to excellence despite the fact that they don’t make absurdly high salaries. The top players are paid well (six figures), and I don’t begrudge them that. The average player makes the same money a white-collar office worker makes. While I’d like to see the average salary go up (football is a punishing game with a short career, and these guys have families to support and their health to think about after their careers are done), I don’t ever want to see our players making millions of dollars. The idea that a person can make that kind of money for playing a sport, when so many people have so little and far more important jobs (e.g. nurses) are drastically underpaid, is nauseating to me.

You are quite correct, d&p, in stating that pro salaries are nauseating to us who had to work hard to make a living and a half-decent pension once our working days are over. However, the reality of pro sports is precisely that there are such huge salaries.

I would like to see expansion in fan-base, larger stadia, an expanded CFL with new teams, better promotion...etc. If that ever happens, it will be easier to attract better-calibre players who will necessarily be paid larger salaries. As I stated in my post, I know I'm dreaming, but this is what I would like to see. One very positive sign is the exponential growth of interest in football in Quebec, the number of boys playing the game, and the calibre of player coming from Quebec, many of whom can be found on other teams in the CFL. Football in Quebec was a joke years ago - not any more! If we see that in other CFL cities, perhaps there will be a groundswell of support and - who knows?

If some of that were to take place, then teams could increase their payroll and players might be less inclined to keep looking elsewhere (i.e. the NFL) to end their football careers. The net result would be that teams would not be constantly rebuilding (injuries, trades, retirements...notwithstanding) their teams every year.

I might be picking at “nits” here
But this summer I rode by a highschool on my bike…noticed they were playing football so stopped for a few minutes to watch.
One of the better players was a linebacker…
It was only when they took a break from practice that I noticed that this talented linebacker was a girl.

OK…my first thought was “I never could have “straight-armed” a girl when I was playing.”
That was my best move…I guess…got me a whole bunch of extra yards
I just wouldn’t have been able to do it.

But I guess the reality is: some of those young Quebec footballers out there are females.
Not sure how prevalent it is
But they’re out there