OT: Winnipeg Blue Bombers 2024 Season Thread (2-6) - Turnovers and YET AGAIN reffing. CFL has decided forcibly end Bombers dynasty. Vs BC Aug 1 730pm

[WolfHouse]

Bombers also released DE Ali Fayad this morning. He's started the past 3/4 games at DE opposite Willie since Haba went down. He has been good in run stopping but basically non-existant in the pass rush and has ceded significant playing time to rookie Canadian Owen Hubert.

Rumour mill has 2nd year DE Tyjuan Garbutt (spent much of last year on Bombers PR) as nearly healthy after making the team but getting banged up. So I assume he's the plan at DE until Haba gets healthy again.

Not sure about this one... Fayad was not our main problem on the DL - I do like Hubert though

Releasing a DL while carrying two fullbacks on the active roster - weird.

 

[bustamente]

Hubert looks like a great find by the Bombers, very promising start to his career here more reps should help his progression.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Ok so the Bombers have decided replace Ali Fayad with a increased role from 8th Round pick rookie Canadian Owen Hubert and brought up from PR 2nd Round Global rookie Lucky Ogbeveon who was listed as a DB when drafted.

I mean I've liked what Hubert has brought as a depth rotational guy, but this is stepping out on a ledge here. Feels like a...

...moment.

Ogbeveon took a REALLY stupid couple of penalties in pre-season btw so I'm just not high on this guy at all. Hubert has been a revelation, but it feels like too much too soon for him.

We're starting 11 Canadians tmw. Minimum needed is 7. American doesn't equal better than Canadian, but it's an odd strategy. Probably guarantees us the comp pick #19 in the draft next year, but I kinda care more about winning games right now.

 

[Huffer]

With the Bombers injuries so far, that would mean they are banking some serious cap space correct?

If that's the case I'm hoping to see the team try and bring in bodies later in the year with that cap space, and specifically with the intention of seeing if some new blood might replace some vets going forward.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

With the Bombers injuries so far, that would mean they are banking some serious cap space correct?

If that's the case I'm hoping to see the team try and bring in bodies later in the year with that cap space, and specifically with the intention of seeing if some new blood might replace some vets going forward.

Depends on a few factors we don't have much knowledge of.

1) How much bonus money was in the contracts. Bonus money counts against the cap anyways.
2) How far over the cap the Bombers were projected to be. CFL teams sometimes have rosters that are over the cap, assuming that several players will spend time on 6 game IR to get them under.
3) How expensive the replacements are versus the players on the roster. Now the replacements are all around league minimum, but most CFL players are far closer to the minimum than would be thought. If you have a 100k (only a handful maybe 10-12 players above that at most on the team I'd guess) player on 6 game for 6 games, theorectically that should clear 33k off the cap. But you need to pay the replacement player for those 6 games. So if they are making league league min, that's 1/3 of 70k counting, so that's 23k counting. So only a savings of 10K overall.
4) How many players are brought off the 6 game early. If a player is placed on the 6 game but comes off early those cap savings end up not counting.

Now Lawson, Schoen, Lawler these are big money players. They will be banking significant cap savings on this as now all 3 will serve the full 6 games on the 6 game IR. Theoretically it should give us a bunch of wiggle room later in the year. But it's hard to say exactly how much. And in the CFL it's pretty hard to be eliminated from the playoff race so there's never very many quality players for sale later in the year.

But yes I have been thinking along the same lines and maybe we can target a say...Eugene Lewis who's being lightly used in Edmonton later in the year. That'd be an ideal target for me. But we'll see. Bombers need to start winning consistently for any of this to matter anyways.

 

[Huffer]

Depends on a few factors we don't have much knowledge of.

1) How much bonus money was in the contracts. Bonus money counts against the cap anyways.
2) How far over the cap the Bombers were projected to be. CFL teams sometimes have rosters that are over the cap, assuming that several players will spend time on 6 game IR to get them under.
3) How expensive the replacements are versus the players on the roster. Now the replacements are all around league minimum, but most CFL players are far closer to the minimum than would be thought. If you have a 100k (only a handful maybe 10-12 players above that at most on the team I'd guess) player on 6 game for 6 games, theorectically that should clear 33k off the cap. But you need to pay the replacement player for those 6 games. So if they are making league league min, that's 1/3 of 70k counting, so that's 23k counting. So only a savings of 10K overall.
4) How many players are brought off the 6 game early. If a player is placed on the 6 game but comes off early those cap savings end up not counting.

Now Lawson, Schoen, Lawler these are big money players. They will be banking significant cap savings on this as now all 3 will serve the full 6 games on the 6 game IR. Theoretically it should give us a bunch of wiggle room later in the year. But it's hard to say exactly how much. And in the CFL it's pretty hard to be eliminated from the playoff race so there's never very many quality players for sale later in the year.

But yes I have been thinking along the same lines and maybe we can target a say...Eugene Lewis who's being lightly used in Edmonton later in the year. That'd be an ideal target for me. But we'll see. Bombers need to start winning consistently for any of this to matter anyways.

Could they also target some late NFL cuts as well?

I'm looking at it from two angles, one to possibly improve the team for this season, but also to see if the team needs to use this year to start bringing in as many bodies as they can so they can see what they have for 2025.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Could they also target some late NFL cuts as well?

I'm looking at it from two angles, one to possibly improve the team for this season, but also to see if the team needs to use this year to start bringing in as many bodies as they can so they can see what they have for 2025.

They will. NFL cuts very very rarely get air dropped in and help that year unless they are a returning player to CFL. So like Mathieu Betts might be a guy that comes in late to help a team, but rando #6 usually just ends up on teams PRs to end the year.

CFL expands their PRs from 10 player limit* to 15 players* from September 1 to late October. Every year Bombers and every other team parachute in 5-8 NFL cuts in September to pad out PRs, most never end up dressing in CFL.

*=Note that this limit does not include the 2 Global player spots that are available all season.

There's less thinking like that in the CFL though. Because careers and contracts are so short most years are just kinda year to year see what you have. Occasionally a guy will come in late then make the roster the next year, but it's not super common. NFL cuts generally don't have the quality to play CFL game in all honesty though.

Like if you look at NFL rosters you have...
Top 15-20% - NFL stars, untouchable
Upper Echolon players 15-30% - Quality NFL starters
Backups/Spot starters - 25-35% - This is where most CFL players rank. The guys in the NFL just tend to be younger, have more NFL experience, or are contract locked into rosters. But almost all CFL players would fall into this category, at least the starters do.
End of roster 15-25% - These tend to be role specific/young developmental guys. Most would not crack a CFL roster.
TC Cuts - This is what CFL teams gobble up, so while there's quality there no doubt, most need to be developed further before being CFL ready and/or they just aren't CFL quality.

 

[ThinIce61]

When teams made their final cuts after the 2nd preseason game there were if I remember correctly a few names of guys that might have been better than what we had and with all the injuries you'd think Walters might be trying to track a couple of these guys down. Other than Whitehead. Is there anyone out there that might be an upgrade somewhere?

 

[Hank Chinaski]

We're starting 11 Canadians tmw. Minimum needed is 7. American doesn't equal better than Canadian, but it's an odd strategy. Probably guarantees us the comp pick #19 in the draft next year, but I kinda care more about winning games right now.

All the more reason to get Kramdi tf off the field.

Start Brian Cole. Better yet, start Michael Griffin in a rover/hybrid type of role and can roll with two natural LBs. Anything would be an upgrade over useless Kramdi.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

All the more reason to get Kramdi tf off the field.

Start Brian Cole. Better yet, start Michael Griffin in a rover/hybrid type of role and can roll with two natural LBs. Anything would be an upgrade over useless Kramdi.

Don't disagree but your gonna burn yourself out trying to wish for that. I spent all year tearing my hair out about Kramdi last year. Bombers love the guy, he's going to play at SLB. Hell even in 22 they ended releasing promising young SLB Donald Rutledge to start Kramdi late in the year. I don't know what they see, but that guy is as entrenched in a starting spot as Willie, Bryant, Oliveira or Bryant.

 

[bustamente]

 

[snowkiddin]

Don't disagree but your gonna burn yourself out trying to wish for that. I spent all year tearing my hair out about Kramdi last year. Bombers love the guy, he's going to play at SLB. Hell even in 22 they ended releasing promising young SLB Donald Rutledge to start Kramdi late in the year. I don't know what they see, but that guy is as entrenched in a starting spot as Willie, Bryant, Oliveira or Bryant.

They must see what Bauming sees.

He mentioned the other day that Kramdi is having an amazing season. Hogwash, that is.

 

[bustamente]

Osh still at it with his Canadian starter quest, no reason for Thomas or Kramdi to be starters in this lineup, even Hubert who has shown glimpses should be a rotational player this year. Ford on the other hand looks like his is getting more comfortable at CB

 

[Holden Caulfield]

They must see what Bauming sees.

He mentioned the other day that Kramdi is having an amazing season. Hogwash, that is.

He just sucks in coverage. Last game there was a pass that basically grazed his head as he was staring at it to be caught for a 25 yard pass to a receiver that was 2 yards away from him. For some reason he didn't play the ball OR the man just lost in space. I don't get what they are seeing with this guy.

This feels alot like Gauthier. Both guys are quality STer, both love to play physical and seem to be great teammates. Both can fill in on D. Both are OK to good in run prevention or plays near the LOS such as blitizing. Both just do not have the athleticism, range, or football IQ to be regulars on D, particularly in pass coverage. But the Bombers love them so they have guaranteed spots for life. At least Gauthier has been benched for Kyrie now, but yeah these guys are coaches favourites that just aren't going away no matter how much they struggle.

Real Mark Stuart, Logan Stanley vibes on these guys lol.

 

[FonRiesen]

Why didn't Kramdi get suspended for injuring Brown? It was blatant hit to the head on a completely telegraphed slide...

View attachment 894236

 

[bustamente]

Why didn't Kramdi get suspended for injuring Brown? It was blatant hit to the head on a completely telegraphed slide...

Thought the league would look at it but I haven't heard anything about discipline, it was pretty cheap. On the other hand I actually don't like the slide rule never have.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

He [Redha Kramdi] got a max fine. Just came out around 3pm today.



Tobias Harris who retaliated against Streveler also got a max fine.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

I miss Janarion.

 

[bustamente]

To bad the Bombers couldn't cut some deadwood and kept Grant

 

[snowkiddin]

Why didn't Kramdi get suspended for injuring Brown? It was blatant hit to the head on a completely telegraphed slide...

League realized it would be more punitive to the Bombers if he stayed in the lineup.

 

[snowkiddin]

To bad the Bombers couldn't cut some deadwood and kept Grant

Should’ve sent Kramdi’s ass packing and rostered a rookie American. Or, like, me.

Would’ve opened up money for Grant.

 

[Jets 31]

Well the good thing about all the injuries to our receivers is with Streveler we don't need any.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Heading out to the game in shortly, but gotta say im feeling good about today. I think Zach gets back on track and has a big night. 250+ passing, 2+TDs. 31-15 Bombers win. I think it's time.

 

[bustamente]

It's a screamer out their today, Bombers O needs to keep the Bombers D off the field and keep the Calgary D on the field.

 

[ps241]

Heading out to the game in shortly, but gotta say im feeling good about today. I think Zach gets back on track and has a big night. 250+ passing, 2+TDs. 31-15 Bombers win. I think it's time.

Remember to hydrate!