For anyone doubting the severity of the cut,and I THINK this was weeks in
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6568/18554921819010215541067.jpg
AB3 used the N word and Mann is whining publicly about his former employer. That’s not perceived classless - its the definition.
You make some good points. In another thread, disciplineandpunish (a knowledgeable regular here) noted that no contending team he’s aware of loses three of its top four receivers from the previous year and then wins the big prize. There’s a first time for everything. Although the stats suggest there’s a problem with our receivers consider this: last year’s team was .500 and that’s what we’re on pace for this year.
Last year many among us complained the O was vanilla and the ‘bend don’t break’ D was broken. The team brought in two new coordinators who brought different philosophies that require different player abilities. If Mann and Bruce couldn’t adjust then the only option is their departure.
This is a strange CFL season. Other than the blue team, any team has been able to kick the stuffing out of any other only to turn around and receive the same treatment the next week. BC is smoking hot right now, but whether they’ve peaked too early or will steam roll to a Grey Cup home victory remains to be seen. If the Cats can get consistent then they have the talent to win the last game. Whatever happens this certainly hasn’t been boring.
Hearing how many stitches the gash required, I was actually surprised he made it back on the field as quickly as he did. Now that I see the injury (and I’m assuming that was just after the stitches were put in), I’m even more surprised. OUCH! He’s lucky there was no damage the the Achilles tendon. That’s got to make running your routes a bit difficult, to say the least.
And thanks for adding a bit of balance to the discussion.
I think the suggestion about Mo's injury was that it didn't happen in the locker room, at least that's how I read it. Makes the comment even worse IMO. Suggests the guy is a liar. The way I see it players are people and when our CFL'ers do all kinds of things for free in the community its ok but if they voice their opinion and some don't like it, let's stick a label on them as whinners and bums is wrong. One thing is for sure BC's offense sure got a lot more balanced and the wins started pilling up in BC since AB got there, didn't do much for the Ticats...
Seems to me that both of these guys had issues with Cobourne trying to show leadership on the team. Good for Mo for apologizing, but these guys (and I don't just mean Ticats) need to learn that making posts for all the world to see that make you look like a jerk is probably not the best course of action. In a league this small you often see the same faces over and over again and it's best not to burn bridges. Both Bruce and Mann obviously don't have a filter and respond purely on emotion at the time without giving themselves time to cool off (not judgin' some of us are like that lol) I actually quite like Coach B's response. He laughed. I think there's a lesson in that.
Cooler, thanks for that post. Nice insight into Mann, not just the negative.
And Ockham, I agree that there is a first time for everything. But I also don't understand why a team with a 5000-yard passer and a proven, consistent receiving corps suddenly decided to overhaul the offense. To me, the offense needed tweaks and modifications (pre-snap motion, better utilization of Thigpen vertically, more picks/rubs), not wholesale changes. The end result is that Khari Jones appears to have dismantled an offense that produced in order to build an offense that isn't producing as well. The numbers don't lie. Apart from Williams, no Hamilton receiver is on pace for a good season yardage-wise.
If I have a proven guy like Arland Bruce, I don't think, "Hmm, how can I find a way to use him less in the offense?" Instead, I'd try to find ways to incorporate rising stars like Williams into my attack without making Bruce an afterthought. Otherwise, you've got a zero-sum game in perpetuity. If you replace Bruce with Williams, you're not moving forward. If, however, you field a receiving corps featuring both Bruce and Williams, the entire offense will benefit. Imagine a starting receiving corps of Williams (WR), Bruce (SB), Stala (SB), and either McDaniel or Mann (WR), with Kelly and Grant developing behind proven talent and occasionally seeing the field in five-receiver packages? That would be pretty fierce.
Finally, no QB likes a revolving door of receivers. Fans can invoke better is better as much as they please, but it takes time for a quarterback to build chemistry with a group of receivers. There has simply been too much change overnight for the offense to remain consistent, and much of that change IMO was unnecessary. I get flipping Mann for DB help. I don't get doing it in the same season you trade Bruce and release McDaniel.
Actually, you could say it was a Ralph Brock for Dee Webb trade… not looking so bad now…
I don't get doing it in the same season you trade Bruce and release McDaniel.Releasing McDaniel made the least sense to me. The guy had a 1,000 yds receiving last season and 7 TD's He may not have had the the greatest fingers in the league, although thousand yard receivers are not a common commodity.
And the Cats couldn’t have traded him for at least a peanut?
I respect Obie’s football ingenue, although this decision was glaringly suspect IMO.
So Ticats fans aren’t the only ones to question this? I agree, trading or cutting one of last year’s outstanding receiving corp might make sense in order to free up cap room so you can bolster the DB corp. I never understood the cutting of McDaniel; that couldn’t have been a cap issue, and as I have stated many times before, I thought he was a pretty good receiver with some up-side.
As for Williams being our go-to guy now, that almost didn’t happen. Remember, he only got to play because of injuries to Mann and Kelly. If either of them had been healthy, Williams probably would have been on the reserve. And without his amazing performance, maybe the Bruce trade wouldn’t have happened…
Actually, of the 3 I was most upset by the release of McDaniel.
Ditto. Not sure why, but we were definitely in the minority there.
You make a good argument. However, things look differently taken on whole than in parts. The AB3 trade had to have been a clash of personalities. If AB3 is such a great receiver then why does he get traded every couple of years? McDaniel may have caught for nearly 1,000 last year, but he had many drops as well. The Mann trade is most likely due to the injuries and under performance of the Secondary.
As did every other receiver on the team aside from Stala. His catch percentage was almost identical to Bruce’s and Mann’s. I remember a lot of times both Bruce and Mann dropping what looked like easy passes as well. I have heard people say McDaniel’s drops were at critical times, that they stopped drives. All that tells me is that his drops were on second down. Maybe that’s because he was thrown to more on second down than the others? (Not about to do the statistical analysis again, but I seem to remember it that way.)
But none of these players are with the team anymore, so it’s all moot at this point.
Who hasn’t dropped the ball? All of the leagues best receivers (Geroy Simon, Nik Lewis etc.) drop the occasional key pass. McDaniel got a raw deal here and it’s ridiculous how quickly good players fall out of favour with the Ticat’s coaches. Stala would probably be next if he wasn’t Canadian as he doesn’t have the speed nor the height that MB now favours.
AB3 had a critical drop in last year's EDSF.
If McDaniel is such a good receiver then where is he now?
Our current receiving corp has the talent all they need now is effective schemes and a QB that can get them the ball.
(Deja vu all over again. Getting dizzy from coming back around to this every month or so.)
Yes, I do think he’s a good receiver. Great? No, at least not yet. Potential? Maybe. As good as “Stala’s Kids”? Not as good as Williams, but maybe as good as or better than Kelly and B. Grant. I’ve seen them both drop a lot of what looked like easy catches too. More than I remember McDaniel dropping all of last year.
Where is he now? On Calgary’s practice roster, behind receivers such as Bryant, Forzani, Franklin, Lewis, and Parker. Hard to crack that line-up. Why has no other team taken him off their PR? Not sure. Not sure if any teams need receivers right now.
Personally, I would take any of the three (Bruce, Mann, McDaniel) back to replace Kelly or Grant. I’m still not sold on the height thing yet. (How tall was Bauman?) Receivers still need to get open and make catches. These two haven’t been doing that on a consistent basis yet. The ones that got away? Better, IMO.
First off, he is a great receiver. No ‘if’ about it. He has six 1000-yard seasons in the CFL, and is generally money in the end zone (in each full CFL season, he’s had 7, 12, 11, 11, 7, 9, 10, 8, and 6 TDs).
Second, I can easily turn the argument around. How did Toronto do after they traded Bruce? Not so very well. They still don’t have a top-flight no. 1 receiver, and they still have no offense. Winnipeg didn’t trade him. They were just outbid by Toronto when Bruce returned from his failed NFL tryout. But they too missed his services from 2004 onward. In short, each team Bruce has left has been the worse for his departure.
McDaniel may have caught for nearly 1,000 last year, but he had many drops as well. The Mann trade is most likely due to the injuries and under performance of the Secondary.Thing is, everyone drops the football. Lewis does it, Simon does, Richardson does it. McDaniel was a good, solid 1000-yard man. You don't rack up close to 1000 yards in a season without being consistent. The receivers you have now, as talented as they may be, are largely unproven apart from Stala. We don't know how they'll fare in crucial, must-win playoff games, and we don't know if they'll be consistent down the line. So what Obie is doing is a gamble to me. It may work out, in which case he'll look great, but as I said before, dropping three veteran receivers in a season when you're supposed to be competing for the Grey Cup is pretty bold, and without much of a precedent.
Personally, I would take any of the three (Bruce, Mann, McDaniel) back to replace Kelly or Grant. I'm still not sold on the height thing yet. (How tall was Bauman?) Receivers still need to get open and make catches. These two haven't been doing that on a consistent basis yet. The ones that got away? Better, IMO.True CatfaninOttawa. Height is an overrated illusion and has numerous flaws.
Whether tall or short, the QB has to hit the player in a catchable region and smaller players are generally more adept at low thrown balls, which greatly decreases the chances for interceptions/tips as well.
Many smaller players can jump just as high as tall players (ask Spudd Webb)
Smaller players are more difficult to tackle due to elusiveness/agility
Smaller players usually possess greater speed
This is the CFL not the NFL where you stand around in the flat doing your nails waiting for a pass and get brought down the second the ball is caught.
We have space to run. Get open, catch the ball and make with some yards.
And I believe Bauman was 6ft 5" … …Height didn’t seem to help his career…
Actually, Caretaker made a comment a few weeks back on one of the threads about Obie and MB building a team to win the Grey Cup. A couple of posts later, he went on to say, “I didn’t say this year.” I wondered at the time if that was his way of telling us that the team is in a rebuilding phase, and not to expect to win this year, or maybe even next year.
I still haven’t lost hope on this year. With six of the eight teams all within four point of each other this close to the end of the season, it’s going to come down to which team gets hot at the right time. Could be us. You never know.
Obie has fixed the problem we had at reciever last year. Oops, we didn’t have one did we. And didn’t have time to get around to the DB problem. If “Better is Better” what the heck are we doing with a DB that couldn’t crack the starting line up of the worst team in the league. He didn’t start in Calgary, but the DC who coached him and didn’t start him thinks he can save us? Cap Space Cap Space Cap Space… They’ll try to win when the new staduim opens. IMO… :lol: