Are the Rider’s Canadian players under attack? This may seem like a bit of crying wolf but do we see a trend developing? Adam Nicolson is traded for Prechae Rodriguez. Jason Clermont is forced to take a big paycut in order for the deal to happen according to Perry Lefko. This has Taman’s M.O. written all over it. Canadians can’t play the skilled positions and always trade away your Canadian talent to achieve your goals.
ET’s philosophy was to nurture and build Canadian content at every position. Although ET has only been gone for a few weeks are we already abandoning that philosophy? The fastest way to undo a successful CFL football team is to attack or neglect the Canadian talent. No doubt there will be a slew of import receivers brought in for TC and no doubt there will one or two of them that Miller wants. Is Dave McKoy the one to be bumped off the roster next in order for that to happen? I can easily forsee a situation where we are deep in import receivers, say six or seven with perhaps three Canadians. Are we witnessing the demise of the Canadian Air Force?
Miller is salivating over the thought of a Grey Cup championship which in it’s self is not a bad thing. However, is he willing to accept long term pain for short term gain in order to get that championship? Jim Hopson are you paying attention?
May seem?? No it is. We have an excess of young canadian inside recievers. Might as well get rid of one to get a good young outside receiver. Canadian or not.
And Clermont took a pay cut cause if he didn’t he was probably going to get cut. Let’s be honest here, Clermont was not Tillman’s best move and really was a PR move in my opinion. He was making way too much for the amount of production he was putting out.
So how do you explain the fact that ALL of our Canadian FA's got re-signed, plus we added another in Bates?
I agree with Soupy....the greater crime would have been tying up six figures in Clermont again this year. God love him, but in a SMS world, it makes no sense.
This is hardly the dismantling of anything. Nicolson wasn't going to get playing time here and we needed a big, fast wide receiver, it really doesn't matter if he is Canadian or not. This was the best move for the team, we still have a lot of great Canadian talent. Clermont was making too much money for the amount of playing time he's getting.
Who have we really lost? We are stacked to the nines in Canadian talent, by far we are the deepest and ratio warnings have no business in Riderville. Yes, thanks mainly to ET, but Taman is no fool evidently (jury may still be out, he is just getting going), but he hasn’t shown a shed of evidence yet. This deal is a great deal, PR is coming off an injury that kept him down last year, we’ll be lucky if we can hang onto him beyond next year as if he produces in green, he will likely generate some NFL interest. Who knows, he even may have asked for the trade considering the lack of exposure he would get in Hamilton. This is just good business. Yep, I think wolf is definately cried here.
Well it seems I got everyones attention. I guess my thinking is that we weren't really hurting at the receiver position. If it ain't broke ...... ! I think Johnny Quinn was comming on nicely at the end of the season and I expected him to replace Walker. Are we going to use Quinn as a backup again this year? I think he may be to good to be a backup. Counting Nicolson we had enough good receivers to backup at every position. Was this a trade we really needed to make? yes, I would have thought about trading Congi for Charles Hughes because we are in desperate need of a quality pass rusher.
The other reason I'm wary is because of Taman's history of trading Canadians and draft picks for import players. Also, PR had a rather dismal season so I'm not sure what he brings us. Granted, he is a player of great size and nice athletic ability with good hands but he seems to be lacking in football skills. He seems to run two pass patterns and they are both pretty much straight lines. I really hope he proves me wrong but untill that time I'm going to be the guy from Missouri. Show me and then I'll believe it.
We gave up a guy who was a second round pick along with our third round pick for 2011.What may be most significant if Lefko is to be believed is that we gave up an outstanding individual from our neg list. I've been wrong many times before and I really hope PR proves me to be wrong this time. Still, I plan on keeping a close eye on all trades Taman makes until such time as he too proves me to be wrong.
He doesn't need to prove you wrong. You are wrong.
And, before you get all doe-eyed over Nicholson, it has been pointed out that he caught ZERO balls for us last year. He trails such notables as Elf Morris, Keith Shologan and Darian Durant in that regard.
Plus, Nicholson (who was a first round pick, not a second) was hardly cherished in BC, and Wally's not known for making collossal errors in talent evaluation....and the only reason he ended up on our roster was that in 2008 we were so devastated by injuries at receiver that we were literally down to 4th string, and the next guy to go in would have been Gainer.
You're trying to start some sort of witch hunt, for reasons that escape me.....
Are you a prophet or are you just infallible? You state your opinion of future and present matters like it’s absolute fact! Miller apparentlly has a very different opinion of Nicolson than you do. I heard him singing Nicolson’s praises on more than one occassion in which he made favourable comparisons of Nicolson to Fantuz and Getzlaf. The point of my comment was not to lament Nicolson leaving but rather to point out that we traded a couple of Canadians for an import. No, I am not interested in starting any kind of “witch hunt” and I’m afraid there may be a great many things that “escape you”! You seem to become quite upset when you disagree with someone else’s opinion
People disagree with me all the time, and if done intelligently, I have no problem with it. I have thanked people on here for correcting me, and many times acknowledged when I was in error. So I am far from infallible. Having said that, I am right more often than I am wrong. And having said that, this isn’t about me. Had you simply posted something to the effect that “We traded 2 NI’s for an import receiver…hmmmm”, that’s one thing.
But to take that singular event and extrapolate from it a dangerous strategy of stripping away our Canadian talent, is wrong. Especially in light of our free agent signings this offseason, where ALL Canadian FA’s were resigned (which I mentioned earlier and you refused or failed to acknowledge or explain how your theory works in spite of this).
You were not questioning the deal (which you are free to do), you were using the deal to advance some loony-tunes position about Taman. And, as I think about it, you probably made it half in jest, and then when no one bit, you compounded the error by trying to defend it as a serious proposition, when all that does is make you, a normally incisive and enjoyable poster, come across as some sort of moonbat, with no more sense than that cadre of Shivers/ET rivalists who just about drove everyone here nuts.
And, speaking of ET, the man with the oft-mentioned policy of stockpiling Canadians - his first two deals were trading Canadians (Lazeo) or picks in exchange for import rbs (Childs and Cates). What reflection were these deals on his policy about Canadians? Zilch. Yet, you would have us read so much into this one transaction, and I think that makes no sense, and said so, as did everyone else who replied on this thread.
Artie we have to stop doing this. I almost don't know how to respond to your last post but I will try.The main point I was trying to make is that Taman has been accused of trading away most of his draft picks when he was in Winnipeg. Here we are with Taman just weeks into his new job and he has traded a Canadian player and a draft pick for an import player. In my original post I inferred that in Taman's mind Canadians can't play the skilled positions. I really did not intend to suggest that he has any problem with signing Canadian linemen or Canadians at any of the so called un-skilled positions.
In response to yours and other posters questions I attempted to explain my reasoning with my second post. I did not resort to insults or name calling but made an honest attempt to explain my position. I answered the question you asked in your second post regarding my willingness to trade Congi for Charleston Hughes. The answer is simply that we are in desperate need of a quality pass rusher. I will give the same answer regarding ET's decision to trade Lazeo for Wes Cates. At the time ET made that trade we were in deperate need of a quality RB. I think in hindsight it was a brilliant move on ET's part.
In your third post you got personal. You stated that I was wrong and no one had to prove it to me. Not that I was wrong in your opinion mind you, but just wrong. Then you suggested that I was "doe-eyed" over Nicolson. You went on to suggest that Nicolson was not cherished in BC and that Wally's was not know for making errors when it comes to talent evaluation. You suggested Nicolson was a band-aid solution but you failed to mention that the Riders did not hesitate to bring him back the next season. I stated that Miller was of a different view regarding Nicolson's ability and that on more than one occasion he had compared him to Fantuz and Getzlaf. To which you have not responded. You continued by accussing me of trying to start a witch hunt.
In your final post you stated that my position was "loony-tunes". You went on to say that I came across as some sort of a moonbat. I believe there was also a suggestion that I have no sense. Relying on name calling and insults to make your point is not indicative of someone who is "right more often than wrong". I would have expected better of you.
So its ok to send a canadian lineman for an import running back (running backs are a dime a dozen many coaches say)
But not ok to send a canadian receiver who is in desperate need to play (0 % chance playing here full time)
for a import wide receiver (2008 East rookie of year)
Ahh, yes. I knew you were too nice a guy to get really steamed…Look, a lot of what I say is in the form of hyperbole, partly to make my point, and maybe give a chuckle along the way. Not to you, who happened to be in the line of fire this time, as it were…
I thought I was careful not to criticize you personally - I called your idea loony-tunes, not you, and said you came across as a moonbat, not that you were one. Now, some may say those are mere semantics, but I have no ill-will for you, and would not want to lump you into the kel/cflisthebest-type group who are/were the true nutbars of this place. Although you were a little thin on supporting facts, you gotta give me that.
Anyway, I probably got a little extra-bent because we had just seemed rid ourselves of all of that Shivers-this and ET-that which, as I said, was complete lunacy, and I didn’t want to get into a Taman’s an idiot-fest just yet…at least let the man do something truly stupid before we stone him, eh?
So, thanks for being a good sport, and if I run into you at Taylor Field, I’ll buy you a beer. Now let’s go on over to Hamilton’s board and chuckle, for they’ve collectively wet their pants over there about this neg-list smurf we gave them who apparently once outran a cheetah.
That is not my theory. To me it’s a matter of need. The Riders were not having much success finding a replacemnt for Kenton Keith. The experiment with Shermar Bracey, Fred Russell and Henri Childs was a bust. With the season about to begin the team was desperate to find a feature back that could do it all. Calgary was deep in running backs and there seemed to be little chance of Cates dislodging Joffrey Reynolds. That doesn’t mean that Calgary didn’t realize what they had in Cates and the price to get him was going to be steep. I think the signing of Austin and the trade for Cates were the two main reasons we won the Grey Cup in 2007. With Johnny Quinn comming on the way he was at the end of last season I just don’t see the same need for a rceiver. As I said earlier, I hope Taman and PR prove me to be wrong.
ET’s philosophy?
Is this the same guy who in his first full year traded away Lazeo for an import? A 1st round pick for an import? So two NIs for import prospects at the same position? Or the guy who left us with two draft picks last year, out of 6. Or traded ALL 6 of our picks this year…but also made other trades to get 3 of them back?
Adam Nicolson was almost certainly a TC casualty. With Rodriguez, we will start EXACTLY the same number of import receivers as last year—two. Nothing to see here…
Arius Wrote: "ET's philosophy?
Is this the same guy who in his first full year traded away Lazeo for an import? A 1st round pick for an import? So two NIs for import prospects at the same position?"
Yup, it's the same guy, who very successfully filled that position and then won us a Grey Cup that same year! You make some interesting points but the difference in the need for A bona fide RB at the beginning of 2007 and the need for a wide receiver in 2010 is light years apart. I think that the quality of the NI receivers in 2010 opposed to the NI receivers in 2007 is also light years apart.
Finding a quality RB was the number one job at the beginning of 2007. As I mentioned earlier it's a matter of need. If this trade would have involved a standout defensive end I would be cheering it the same way I cheered the Lazeo - Cates deal.