Thorpe's replacement

You don’t think the Als can pay Cahoon and think Chapdelaine will come cheaper???

No kidding. Would have to be cheaper to hire Cahoon than to hire Chapdelaine, who has been an OC for many years and who could also jump back into the CIS ranks without too much difficulty, I would think.

Another name to put on the GM/Director of Football Operations list would be Thomas Dimitroff Jr., apparently on the outs as Atlanta GM.

He grew up in Canada, played DB at Guelph, and I see he was Sask.`s Canadian Scouting Co-ordinator in 1991-1992. His dad was a CFL QB.

Brock Sunderland?

He’s going to find work easily in the NFL.

When Trestman went to the Bears, he took several Als coaches with him. What comes to mind is Tibesar, Sinclair, Myers(?) and I forget if there were others.

ANYONE in that group who can help rebuild the Als depleted staff? That none of them resurfaced in the CFL after the Bears fired Trestman .. (maybe Sinclair has) might be my answer.

Sinclair, maybe. Tibesar, hell no. He got canned from another position after being canned in the NFL, I believe. Meyer was an O-line guy and we’ve already got Sweet.

Anyway, Didier reports that according to Popp, they expect Thorpe to report to work and that there are no hard feelings. So we don't have to find a new DC for at least one season!

Likely the best answer pending further discussions/events. If he says otherwise it could mean the Als accept his resignation and void his contract.

I expect Thorpe to be “traded” to Edmonton (e.g., Als send the rights to Chad Johnson to Edmonton for a draft pick and then void Thorpe’s contract so he can move) or maybe even just re-assigned to scouting under his present contract and a new DC hired (could depend on specific language in the contract, but happens all the time in the NHL).

If all this had happened behind closed doors & nobody knew that Thorpe handed in his resignation, then sure the Als could have gotten away with the "no hard feelings" stuff.

Once everything went public, all that changed. Maybe Popp just wants to keep Thorpe's stock high enough so that somebody like the Eskimos will actually give up something in order to sign him. If Popp just let him go immediately, then the Als would get nothing. Of course, this strategy working or not depends on whether anybody believes that Thorpe can continue with the Als.

Popp is one of the least political people I’ve seen in pro sports. If he says Thorpe is expected to do his job, that’s what he means. Thorpe is no threat to Jim. Jim puts the team first and if he feels that the team is better with Thorpe right now than looking for another DC. I’m convince.