Did the CFL go to far to boost Argos?

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joe kapp22
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Hambone wrote:I see the deal as being nothing more than a football move. As solid as Ray has been the Eskimos have been mired in mediocre to OK football for several years now. Edmonton won 2 Cups in Ray's first 3 CFL seasons. 6 seasons and a lot of change has happened since Edmonton's last trip to the big game. In that time each one of Edmonton's divisional rivals have sipped champagne from Earl Grey's goblet. Everybody respects Ray and knows on any given game day he can be as good as any QB. I find there to be a cerebral aspect to his personality that gives me the impression he doesn't quite elevate his teammates' game to that next level like Calvillo does and I think Lulay is doing. I think Tillman and Reed have simply decided it was time to go in another direction at QB. I think likely they will be looking for somebody who brings more to the table in terms of a multi-dimensional game. Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to make a leap forward. If you've decided you want to go in a different direction at QB then keeping an incumbent like Ray around will serve more as a roadblock to making that inevitable change. He's in his prime and he never plays poorly enough to warrant a benching like the one Burris earned this year. Tillman has shown he is not afraid to make big moves like this. After Kerry Joseph won the MOP in 2007 and the Riders won the Grey Cup he traded Joseph. In getting Jyles I think they are looking at a stop gap measure while they find their real long term solution which could well be Eric Ward or Matt Nicholls or somebody else they sign or acquire in the offseason.
As a football move though, Tillman just moved Ray with no replacement who is near his level, that is what is probably the most surprising about the trade.

I'm all for the Argos getting better, and hope this jump start them unto the road to success.
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Ravi
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B.C.FAN wrote:
TheLionKing wrote:Conspiracy theorists unite ! I don't think for a nanosecond that the league strong armed the Eskimos in giving away Ricky Ray. Even with Ray, the Argos are still a long ways from being a contender.
With Ray's salary to pay, the Argos are less likely to be able to sign their own free-agent linemen, Rob Murphy, Dominic Picard and Taylor Robertson. The Argos have 13 free agents, second only to Winnipeg. The full impact of this trade is yet to be felt in Argoland.
To be honest, I could see the Argos only being interested in bringing one or two of those linemen back anyway. Edawn Coughman did a fine job replacing Murphy for the final half of the season and 2010 first round pick Joe Eppele was very solid as Robertson's replacement after he went down with an injury with about a third of the season left. Jonathan St-Pierre has been waiting in the wings for two years to replace Picard and the Argos have a couple of other highly-touted Canadian offensive linemen in the pipeline in Joel Reinders and Tyler Holmes.

At the end of the day, the Argos will get better not only with Ray but with their off-season recruiting over the coming months which received a huge boost with the addition of Chris Jones.

And for Joe Kapp, I can tell you that 99% of Argo fans are absolutely thrilled with this shrewd trade by Barker along with the other off-season moves that have been made so far and don't feel cheated one bit.
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Ravi
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geroy_simon_081 wrote:The conspiracy theories are ridiculous and have no base. This is 100% Tillman and nothing more. The notion that ANY team is going to help out the argos is laughable. So Tillman is going to purposely make his team worse to help out a team that doesn't pay his salary and risk losing his job?

The Eskimos are taking a lot of heat with this decision and from a business stand point, this will hurt them financially a lot. There's NO WAY on god's green earth this was done to "boost" the argos. None...next.
Well said, Geroy! Was it a conspiracy when Tillman traded Kerwin Bell, following a 5000 yard+ passing season, from Toronto to Grey Cup host city Winnipeg in 1999? Tillman has on at least four occasions now traded away a high-priced, productive starting QB. He thinks that he is the smartest guy in the league and he is trying to prove it with this deal. This deal is all about a shrewd move by Jim Barker and Eric Tillman's ego which may or may not get him and his team in trouble. It is about nothing else than those things.
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B.C.FAN
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Ravi wrote:Well said, Geroy! Was it a conspiracy when Tillman traded Kerwin Bell, following a 5000 yard+ passing season, from Toronto to Grey Cup host city Winnipeg in 1999? Tillman has on at least four occasions now traded away a high-priced, productive starting QB. He thinks that he is the smartest guy in the league and he is trying to prove it with this deal. This deal is all about a shrewd move by Jim Barker and Eric Tillman's ego which may or may not get him and his team in trouble. It is about nothing else than those things.
Eric Tillman has won Grey Cups with three teams, but none of those wins came after he traded away his marquee quarterbacks. If this trade holds true to form, the Eskimos peaked before the trade.
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Belize City Lion
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I can't see how the league could coerce the Schmoes to trade Ray. They don't hold anything over Edmonton and can't offer anything in return. The Eskimos have been one of the worst teams, an average team, and for 5 games this season the best team in the CFL with Ray at QB. So as far as I am concerned Ray is not going to make or break the Schmoes. Are they better with him? Of course. Are they going to win a Grey Cup just because he's the QB? Probably not. I'm surprised Tillman made this trade, but I can't see how it could have anything to do with the CFL wanting Ray in Hogtown.

In the early view it does make it look like the west will be a two team race between BC and Calgary. I like that idea :thup:
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dtrain
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The next major move the Argos should make:
Have Braley sell the Lions to local ownership group (Skulsky & Co. as rumoured).
This would show that Braley is 100% committed in time and energy to rebulding Argos.
Sooner the better on this deal.
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