Murphy or Goodspeed?

"Would I rather have Dan Goodspeed in the West than the East? Sure," Kelly said. "But it's part of business."

Another part of business is the fact the Bombers have already paid Goodspeed an $80,000 roster bonus -- more than half of his $150,000 salary in 2009.

For the entire article....

[url=http://www.winnipegsun.com/sports/football/2009/04/03/8986046-sun.html]http://www.winnipegsun.com/sports/footb ... 6-sun.html[/url]

Just when I thought Mike Kelly couldn't have seemed more ... Inept, for a lack of a better word, he says in the article linked to the previous post that the arms on that young tackle they got from the Riders are 38.5 inches around...

So what position are the Cats going to turn over to a Canadian? With Goodspeed being an import, they must put a Canadian in somewhere else where there was an import last year. Add to that the departure of Lumsdon and that makes 2 new positions where Imports played last year that now have to be manned by Canadians. Any ideas where that may be? I'm not all that up on the Cats Canadians, but I assume Barker will probably take one of the spots at safety.

Hage (C)
Hudson (G)
Gagne-Marcoux (G)
Gaulthier (T)
Bauman (SB)
Mariuz/Barrenechea (LB)
Barker (S)

Possibles:

Kirk (DT)
Pavlovic (FB)
Beveridge (S)
Mace (DT) - (if we sign him)

Goodspeed is not an “additional” import starter, they were going to go with an import there anyway. They actually will have one less import on the OL than last year. Last year they started 2 import tackles and with the addition of Gauthier will only have to start one import on the oline.

Gauthier at a tackle spot means we can put an import at TB and have no ratio changes elsewhere. Frankly having the ratio buster in Lumsden was often a nuiscance because if he went down and was replaced by an American, we’d have to shuffle the roster in other positions.

Regarding Barker, I think that will be the case eventually, but he’s a rookie still, and basically took a year off from football, so I wouldn’t bet on him starting right away.

It's no contest IMO who's the best tackle. Teams play their best tackle on the left side to protect the QB. That is for right handed QB's which 90% are. Murphy wins hands down.
Goodspeed is a good steady tackle but he won the east all star vote by default IMO. Hamilton had a revolving door at RT and the Argos and Als both had young Canadians who are still learning. The fact he's supposedly only making 70,000 is because he was pre-paid by the Bombers to the tune of 80,000. So he really is a 150,000 player or more going forward. If Obie finds a younger cheaper guy, who is just as good, by next year Goodspeed will probably be history. Especially if he wants a raise.
I think Mike Kelly figures as younger and probably cheaper, Glenn January has more up side now than Goodspeed.
But Gauthier and Goodspeed give Hamilton some stability at the tackle position. Something that's been missing for several years.
The unit of Gauthier, Gagne-Marcoux, Hage, Hudson and Goodspeed should be a solid line IMO, as long as they all stay healthy. Except for Dyakowski there's not much experience behind them.

Toronto and Hamilton should be able to take over the east this season. The way Winnepeg’s going is just like a swimmer struggling with equipment that he can’t cut loose. Eventually that swimmers gunna get tired and drown.If things work out for the Peg, which is highly unlikely then high five Kelly, months and months of stupid moves paid off unbelievably. Toronto and Hamilton have the best O-lines in the east, Toronto has the best overall line, Hamilton having the best depth.Labour day should be interesting :smiley: bet the final scores gunna be like 56-54 or something lol.