Official Free Agency Thread

Alright so with free agency in 2 days I figured instead of having a bunch of separate threads to share the latest signings and or trades we could just post them here, if the mods want to put a sticky on the thread that's fine by me. Free Agency opens Tuesday February 11th.

Here is a list of pending free agents...

http://cfl.ca/page/2014-free-agent-tracker

As for the Riders I feel we may need some linebacker help, Butler is a free agent, along with the underrated Kromah, and Williams is coming off of a torn ACL. Surprised Edmonton hasn't re signed Koch yet, would like to see the Riders take a swing to bring him back to Riderville. I feel we may be asking Geroy to take a pay cut. What positions does your team need to fill? Any wish lists? Remember to post all news here!

Bombers really need OL upgrades. I'm hoping we get Josh Bourke and/or Steve Myddleton.

The Cats have apparently lost Simoni Lawrence to the NFL. which leaves only 4 FA on the Cat roster(J.Johnson-lb/M.Beswick-lb/K.Scott-ls/T.Davis-dt).The team doesn't seemed interested in resigning Davis,but I'm hoping that the other 3 resign with the team.As for other team's FA my wishlist includes Edmonton's DT-Ted Laurent and Toronto's DB-Pat Watkins,Saskatchewan's DB/LB-Craig Butler and B.C's FB-Stu Foorde.

I believe every team will be after Patrick Watkins. it'll be interesting.

It’s going to be interesting indeed to see where Watkins ends up.IMO it will be one of three teams,being either resigning with Toronto or jumping ship to one the Cats or the Eskimos.Watkins is familiar and has played for both DC Steinhauer and HC Jones respectively.It also doesn’t hurt the Cats that Brandon Isaac and Eva McCollough are both former team mates of Watkins,not to mention that Hamilton is only 45 minutes away and a short drive down the Highway.I got my fingers crossed,would love to see Watkins change from double blue to black and gold next season.

Anyone know if they’ve released last years cap results? A lot of rumors swirling that the Riders went over. As for this season I feel we are going to have to restructure some deals (Simon is the biggest name) I’m hoping we can strike an extension with Etienne or we are going to look awfully stupid on that trade…

For back up QB I see us making a trade for Matt Nichols, I feel his stock has went down after a torn ACL and we might not have to give up a lot, maybe try signing Neiswander to compete with Sunsuri.

Despite poor O-Line play (pass protection mainly) at different spurts throughout the season I feel we have enough key pieces now from the last 2 years stocking up that it’ll just come down to coaching and gelling. As for D-Line I really hope we get Mcelveen back he was a beast on interior pass rushes. If we lose Butler maybe we give James Patrick a call? Despite the loss of Dressler I’m still liking our receiving core with Smith and Getzlaf as returning 1000 yard pass catchers, up and coming Etienne and some depth in Sisco, Eron and Geroy ( hopefully he’s not released). Anyways that’s my analysis

First off I'm interested to see if Rory Kohlert comes back to the bombers as has been speculated since he was picked by the Redblacks in the expansion draft.

Biggest names are obviously Bourke, Emery, Watkins, Butler, Myddleton, and McCune. Second tier guys IMO would be someone like Keron Williams, McElveen, Scott Mitchell, Forzani, Parker, Malik Jackson, and Chris Randle. I would like the Bombers to jump in on all the top tier guys as well as Malik Jackson and Chris Randle. Jackson would be a nice get to help offset the loss of Muamba and Randle is a decent DB and I think we need to shake up our secondary that wasn't very good last year. Some guys may be in limbo until Bourke, Emery, McCune, and Watkins make up their minds.

Sounds like Lawrence of the Ticats, Alex Hall of the Riders, Chris Matthews of the bombers, Derrius Brooks and Cordarro Law of the Stamps, each enticing FA prospects, are still looking at NFL options. Ted Laurent is another guy looking for a NFL deal but I could see him probably being in play quicker than the other names.

I think any team would love any of the top tier guys. It will be interesting to see how big a factor Ottawa will be on the upper tier guys, having more room under the cap than the other teams considering how few veteran salaries they are currently carrying. McCune, Emery, Butler, Malik Jackson, Forzani, Parker, Watkins - any combination of 2 or 3 of these guys would help them fill out some areas. They need someone for Burris to throw to, which is where guys like Forzani and Parker will help, also a plus they are NI's. On D, once you get past their Dline there isn't much that should scare anyone at the moment. Adding a couple of McCune, Emery, Butler, and Watkins would give them more credibility and would offer Mark Nelson a little more to work with. I could also see Ottawa taking a run at the Bombers' Jovon Johnson, Brandon Stewart, and/or Will Ford on lower deals to help build up their roster with some CFL vets.

it's been reported and posted in the Ti-Cat forum that Simoni Lawrence has struck a deal with the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and the official signing will take place in the next few days.Lawrence also reported on his twitter account Thanking the Cat organization and that he'll miss his team mates and all the Ti-Cat fans and all the support he got last year,and how he loved playing as a Cat,if only for one season.Good luck to ya Simoni,a class act all the way,we'll miss having you around this season.
Lawrence will be the 5th ex-Cat in the last few years to transition from the CFL to the NFL.

G.McIntyre.........JETS
J.Hickman..........COLTS
M.Thigpen..........DOLPHINS
C.Williams..........BEARS
S.Lawrence.........VIKINGS

[url=http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=443450&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter]http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=443450& ... um=twitter[/url]

Riders take NI Paul Woldu off the FA list but then also release Chris Garrett and Milt Collins. Does Garrett's release mean they are close to bringing back Sheets?

Im hoping Edmonton resigns Laurent before FA starts and goes to pick up Patrick Watkins, you dont see very many corners at 6’5 and even fewer with the skill set he has. We also need to sign Burke for the o-line as it has been dreadful since after our last Grey Cup victory. Id be happy with 2/3 of these guys if we’re lucky, dont want to run out of cap space on FA.

Sounds like the Als are making a hard last hour push to keep Bourke from hitting FA.

Riders also let Diamond Ferri go today to clear out more space.

....Some speculation (I'm sure there'll be lots of that) that Ferri is headed Wpgs. way???? :roll: Just a rumour so far :roll:

Hope it stays just that, a rumor. Not a Ferri fan at all.

According to Herb its Josh’s agent who threw a lifeline at Popp. Hope he’s smart enough to take it…

If he can fit it in between his NFL interviews…

Has this thread died off already? The Argos take Mike Bradwell of the FA market and it’s like no one around here cares LOL

Kinda weird that the BC Lions would take to twitter to announce they offered Keron Williams a contract ahead of FA. Usually don’t see official announcements for offers like that. The offer is kind of surprising I suppose since Buono had previously said they were going to let Williams go to the market.

Unfortunately this forum has turned more political in the last couple of years with more and more stadiums going up and the drama that surrounds the Argos year in and year out. I’m not going tell people what to talk about but it would be nice to come to a football forum to talk football… I digress…

Back ON topic I’m glad we are trimming some fat. I liked Ferri’s versatility from DB —> LB but his age and stupid penalties were probably the main reason for his release. Glad we retained Wouldu great special teams ace. As for Garret being released I’m not sure what the plan is here… Jock Sanders is still a pending Free agent so I have no idea what’s going to happen at the Running Back position. I’m still hoping we make a play for Nick Moore or Koch.

Curious if Nick Moore still has NFL aspirations and Buono just made him wait it out til FA to sign as opposed to the other teams letting guys out of their contracts earlier to sign down south. If not he'll be a prime FA candidate for a few teams.

Both Emery and Ferri are guys IMO that can hurt your team with penalties. But unlike Ferri, Emery can still help your team more often than he hurts you. Ferri's time I think is past. I seriously hope all this talk about him coming here to the Bombers is just talk.

I heard he and Chris Mathews (Bombers) were taking their shot at the NFL, not sure how any of their tryouts went, we landed Etienne it would be nice to add one more guy to compliment Getz and Taj.

Sara Orlesky ?@saraorlesky 9m
Jovon Johnson tweets that the Bombers have told him they won't be bringing him back this season #CFL