A good general rule of thumb is to avoid anything that happened in 2020.
Day 1 of the 2024 edition of Free Agency stretched into the evening with an uncomfortably familiar feeling. The biggest name on the market remains unsigned, with Tim White — an immediate No. 1 option on any team in the league — still looking for a deal that appeals to him.
As a U.S. CFL fan I hate to see quality players leave the league for the NFL. As a Bomber fan I am spending a lot of time second guessing their decisions these past two years. They had a really good young QB who they let walk while it is obvious that Collaros is not the same guy he was two seasons ago. If. the team gets any older we will need to start carbon dating the roster. I think the Riders have decided that they want to win games, which should make the West a lot more interesting next season. The East will be a work in progress. Toronto has lost a ton (tonne) of talent and Hamilton is, well, Hamilton. I do not see Ottawa as having a coach that can get the job done, which leaves the Als to be my favorite heading into 2024. Man! Can we start the season now? LET’S GO CFL!
Tim White is reportedly looking to get in the $300,000 range. He is good but not worth $300,000 so the teams are passing him up. He may go this season watching CFL on the TV.
It looks like they’re going to get younger, like it or not. FA is far from over & there’s some bargains out there. But, at this stage, teams are not surprisingly raiding the Argo roster for young talent. The Bombers after bringing back Schoen & Oliveira, are bleeding veterans - 4 retirements, 6 more going elsewhere to date. As per 3DN they’ve added Streveler to replace Brown but that’s about it. (They missed 1 of the Hallett boys who came on board but understandable).
If I was 2nd guessing a decision it would be Schoen. With Lawler & Demski they already had 2 top WR’s eating up close to $500K in salary. With Schoen getting about $150K up from last year, Brady & Kolankowski doubling their salaries, maybe spending $700K plus on 3 receivers is a bit much. Six guys gone on D (7 if Walker signs with Stamps) & 2 on OL hurts. Gotta rebuild the trenches. You only have to look at the blown leads the last 2 GC’s to see that having that same group on offence doesn’t mean much if you can’t hold the fort on the other side.
Agreed - some puzzling decisions. Time wil tell.
We’re getting our butts kicked now. Looks like we’ll have to bring in a ridiculous number of new faces to training camp. A lot of them will be in the 300 pound range. Expect a few heavily laden jets to limp into Winnipeg and hit the tarmac hard this spring.
Looks like Tyrell Ford is coming to town so that’s real good news for the Bombers.
You can write it down…
Though Castillo wants more dough
There’s no place left to go.
Everybody’s got their kicker so you’ll get him back. 
Well as you were one of those always urging the Bombers to get younger and criticizing the number of aging veterans they carried, I take it you are a full two thumbs up on what is occurring.
I think their overall strategy is pretty clear. There wasn’t enough money (and clearly the cap hits them far harder than any other team in the league with 4 Cup trips in a row) to go with younger stars everywhere needed or to fill out both lines as much as they would have liked to. So instead Walters decided that for this year he would go full Air Coryell and ensure they have the best players down the middle. Best 1-2 QB combo in the league that will force opposing defences to flip the switch on how they operate often. Best running back. Best set of wide receivers. The highest scoring team in the league last year just became even more high scoring and will also have Lawler for the entire year. This version of the Bombers is a far cry from the once in fifty years defence of 3 years ago, but is also the scariest offence in the league by far, assuming everyone stays reasonably healthy. The Bombers clearly intend to outscore everyone, and they just might. This could be a generational offence.
I had posted this concept in a Bomber thread earlier and also had speculated about Castillo likely having no place to go, which I am happy to see you agree with. Here’s hoping.
Well, Jon, prior to any signings in December you & I agreed on a couple of things. I figured the Bombers would lose 2 off OL, 2 off DL, a LB, one of Oliveira or Schoen & 2 off DB’s. You were mostly in agreement. I had in mind Bryant would retire & Gray, who has never met expectations, would be gone. On DL my thoughts were Jeffcoat & Jake, Darby & 1 other at DB. Looks like Clements is gone @ DB but IMO Bighill is past is best before date though I doubted they would make that move & let him play out his contract.
Here’s the issue, Jon. The problem is defence. I’ll restate the obvious. Of the 3 top games in 2023 (cfl.ca Dec 2023 article), the Bombers are in all of them. But not in a good way. #1 - GC, #2 - Crum’s coming out party & #3 - Labour Day all had one thing in common - late leads in games & losses for the Bombers. The 1st 2 games lost in spectacular fashion.
The Bombers have added 2 players - Streveler for Brown which is basically a wash despite different styles & Noah Hallett, a ST’er which doesn’t make up for the loss of Exume or Miller to name 2. Leaving with them are also Hardrick & Richmond @ OL, likely Gray as well. Jeffcoat, Hansen, maybe Walker on DL along with Clements & Houston. Add in Briggs & 5th wheel O’Leary Orange & that’s a lot of holes to fill.
The offence is pretty much unchanged except for Streveler & a giant sized “Western nominee @ OL” sized hole on the right side but the O had possibly the top trio of WR’s, best RB & Collaros last year. So can we expect different results?
I salute your optimism & FA is far from over. The offence may well be scary this year but so might the defence - in a completely different way. It seems the Bombers again are content to sign their own. They are the only team as of yet to have signed anyone away from another roster.
We’ll see what happens.
Yes we largely agreed and still do. The weakness definitely is on D and specifically on the D line and at linebacker. The Bombers secondary remains pretty well among the best and the Bombers have a stellar history of finding DB’s.
The biggest loss aside from Hardrick is probably Walker on the D line. We also hated to see Hansen go and O’Leary-Orange was a nice depth piece it would have been nice to retain going forward. Losing a guy like Hardrick was predictable in the sense that some team was likely to poach a starter for obscene money ($230,000) that the Bombers couldn’t hope to match. It turned out to be Hardrick. Losing Houston was an improvement. No one in the league got beat for more big plays and we all saw the end of the Grey Cup.
As to the linebacker concern, Clement’s clearly wasn’t good enough in the eyes of the coaches to start and was basically benched the second half of the year, although he may still have potential. Yes Bighill is getting long in the tooth, but there is no better defensive captain and play caller and leader. Flying under the radar as usual is Wilson, actually their best linebacker. According to the stat metrics he was either #1 or #2 in the league (can’t remember) at linebacker last year for what that is worth. Of course that doesn’t mean he’s the best linebacker in the league but he is near the top and is a better linebacker than most linebackers people actually talk about. He’ll also be healthy to start the year. But for sure the Bomber defence looks to be their weak spot and is nowhere near their 50 year plus best defence of 3 years ago. We’ll see.
Barring major injuries however, I think the Bomber offence has a chance to be generational. Even if they are it remains to be seen whether the apparent strategy of out scoring their opponents will be successful. Might be a lot of 45-38 games.
They have the best receiving corps in the league even if Bailey doesn’t stay. If he does that would simply be unfair to other teams. For my money Lawler and Schoen are the best two receivers in the league and my favourite Lawler, who can catch a ball in traffic and spectacularly better than anyone, will be available the entire year as well. Both you and I and most others didn’t foresee both Oliveira and Schoen staying and I can see their offence being virtually unstoppable at times. The go all in on offence strategy Walters has taken, perhaps out of necessity at least in part, I don’t think was foreseen. We’ll see if it works.
The only point I strongly disagree with you on is that Streveler for Brown is a wash. Streveler is far superior and I will speculate that he learned a lot from his time in the NFL and that the raw rookie we previously saw will be a lot more polished in the passing game. He is also off the charts when it comes to leadership and character. He is a one man tush push as well. Brown may do well and I wish him success but let’s face it, he hasn’t proven that he can be a starter yet. The Bombers I believe have the best 1-2 punch at QB in the league, taking over from BC who held that distinction last year.
We’re not done yet and maybe the Bombers will surprise with another signing or two to help fill a weakness or two, although I don’t expect anything major as the money cupboard has to be pretty much bare. The most important signing left in my opinion if they can manage it is Castillo.
Zach would disagree. He raved about Brown & his passing accuracy. Streveler is a mediocre passer until proven otherwise. Sure his NFL coach said he had the best pre-season game he’d seen. How many regular season snaps did this coach give him? His NFL career consists of 1 start. Fact is, among football insiders, Streveler was looking at a backup position in the CFL. Nobody had him as a starter.
Walters in the Wpg media said today that Bailey, Rose & Gray are leaving - Castillo & Grant want more dough. Sergio has no place to go so he’s going to have to take less. Grant? Not a big lineup for him with the injuries but maybe goes too.
Bombers have lost the most players right now even before the above 3 are mentioned. While the Bombers are bleeding personnel it’s not like the other clubs are standing still. The Argos have lost 1 more than they’ve gained & still look really good. The Als have added some really good pieces. Until someone beats the GC champs & the regular season record holders, they’re still the teams to beat.
The Bomber offence is essentially the same offence as last year - & the year before if you switch Ellingson for Lawler. Schoen is still searching for his 1st CUP so call me skeptical, Brady for his 1st CUP as the feature back. At this point I’m not buying - no offence.
How has Streveler proven he can be a starter, though? I’m not seeing it at all. Great running QB but that’s about it on paper. After a lengthy stint in the NFL where he rarely saw the field for anything meaningful, is he going to be better than what we saw a few years ago? IMO doubtful.
He is a GREAT change of pace QB for a package of plays, or in a wildcat formation, no argument there. But he is almost as unproven as a starter as Brown and older.
I didn’t say he was going to be the starter. I referred to the 1-2 and he’s the 2. He will no doubt take a number of snaps every game like he did before to mix it up.
Sure, that’s a fair point, but right now it’s your speculation about Streveler having improved in his NFL time vs. other fans’ speculation about Brown being a starter. I think both are unproven. What Streveler did in the CFL 5 years ago is old news. And sadly, players are frequently not the same after they have a sustained stint in the NFL.
Like a ripe apple falling from the tree… 
Pick it up while you can. The neighbours have been squirrelling away most of them.
Which would explain why my neighbors are staggering around like drunks. Some of those apples are getting pretty fermented.
Not all of the well aged fermented apples have fallen yet.
We prune ours in the spring before the rot spreads & the whole tree needs to be replaced.
We chopped out our crab apple trees a couple decades ago. The darned things produced bad apples. We were told that every fruit tree we tried to plant in the same soil would probably develop the same blight that cause our apples to rot early and often. Only the birds were happy to eat them.
Yeah well it’s all speculation from anyone. That’s what we do this time of year. 
I was basing my speculation on the fact that he has been exposed to different systems and many different football minds and that he would have benefited from NFL coaching. Yes he’s a couple of years older now but at 29 he’s still a relative pup for a QB. Fajardo is 31 and on top of that has two extra years of wear and tear on his body. I’m not worried.
I’m not sure about players not being the same after a stint in the NFL and am not clear on what you mean. I can’t see how that could do anything but help. Sure if someone was there for years and came back in their mid to late thirties they wouldn’t be the same as their young self in any league, but that has to be very rare I would think. You guys willingly took Sankey (also 29) from the XFL last year and I didn’t notice any negatives in his play from being in the US. If you are correct then Rourke better get back to the CFL soon before the “NFL effect” gets him too as he is doing the exact same thing Streveler did, actually less as he hasn’t seen a non exhibition snap yet.
I just don’t see how the NFL can do anything but improve his game. Speculate ,speculate.
We’ll see what happens this year and probably will have completely forgotten about this thread before the season even starts.
Of course Zach would praise his teammate and back up as he should and there is no reason to believe he wasn’t sincere. That doesn’t mean that if you sat down with Zach and got him drunk that he might not say he prefers Streveler. We’ll never know.
Streveler’s NFL coach didn’t refer to just one game when praising Streveler. He said he had the best pre season in NFL history. He starred in every game he played in. Now I’m not saying the hyperbole of his coach is true, but it’s still pretty high praise. Nevertheless NFL politics prevented him from getting a meaningful chance. Even with a pre season performance for the ages and the Jets having a historically stinkeroo set of QB’s, he never was given an opportunity. I don’t know whether he would have succeeded or not, but once he was in essence blackballed the writing was on the wall. It’s still quite an achievement and shows that many think he has talent. You would know better than I, but how often does a CFL QB actually become a starter in the NFL? Moon and Garcia and Theisman come to mind and I believe were the most successful (I’m only thinking 70’s on-I know there were others before then but a different world). Flutie as well but I wouldn’t exactly call his NFL tenure a success. Rourke has played in the NFL even less than Streveler, as in not at all. That doesn’t make Streveler a better QB, but does highlight the power of NFL politics. I am very happy that Rourke was claimed by New England. Unless Lawrence was seriously hurt, and he is almost indestructible as we saw this year, Rourke might have spent the next 10 years on the practice roster.
They reported on the radio today what you
said and what I previously speculated, namely the Bombers pocketbook is empty. So yes Bailey and Gray won’t be signed. Bailey hurts. Many have criticized the play of Gray including I believe yourself in the past. I don’t think anyone in Winnipeg is crying foul at his departure. Rose was never even on the radar after being sat down at the end of last year and for the playoffs. I don’t see anyone beating a path to his door and he may have to retire. Maybe Calgary will sign him so that they can give up big plays on both sides of the field. It does appear that both Castillo and Grant will re-sign. Grant was the last of their own free agents to sign last year well after February as I recall. But Castillo is of the utmost importance. Walters also said something to the effect that he knew that sooner or later there would be a year where he would be unable to sign a lot of players he would have liked to and that this was the year. Going to 4 Grey Cups in a row tends to result in the players seeking raises. He stated that the Bombers would be going with a lot of younger talent this year, exactly what you have been calling for. In my opinion the Bombers have still fared better than the Argos, even though the Argos were only facing salary cap hell for the first time. They lost their two best DB’s, the second best RB in the league and the best kicker in the league and replaced him with Liram Shankapotamous. Good luck with that. They also have one of the weakest set of WR’s in the league, forcing them to prolong the careers of Ungerer and Sindani. I agree that the Als are the team to beat in the East and after all they are the champs and will be until someone beats them in the playoffs.Toronto will have a good team but I doubt anywhere near a 16-2 team. But Winnipeg is still the team to beat in the West if you want to play the East winner in November in BC and the oddsmakers currently have them as the favourites to win the Cup.
As D & P says, it’s all speculation. Will Dru Brown turn out to be the next Troy Kopp or be closer to the next Ricky Ray? We’ll see. Even if you prefer Brown over Streveler and don’t think Streveler can be a starter in this league, Strevs has far more CFL starts and playing time under his belt than Brown. He also makes the Bombers far more difficult to defend against as he will certainly see playing time similar to his last stint here, potentially making the Bombers a two headed monster which they could not be with Brown as QB2. The switch might actually be good for both Winnipeg and Ottawa.
Have a nice day!