Football anyone? Depth charts are out. Prior to everything being locked down there were plenty of moves going on in anticipation of a normal year. Just thought it might be a change to look at some of that. Realize it is all speculative.
1) Hamilton: delay works in favour of Jerimiah Masoli. Cats have top level QB's. Watched tape of the Grey Cup and reacquired Larry Dean. Solid regular season team. Top adds Dean, Posey, Don Jackson.
2) Calgary: Bo Levi is a determined man. Welcome home Sean McEwen. Potential fixture for the next 7 years. Questions abound with Eric Rogers and Kamar Jordan and at MLB. Count on Huff to fill the holes and be competitive.
3)Edmonton: Believe it will be the Eskimos chasing the Stamps. The back to backs at Labour Day would decide first place. An already good offensive line will improve with Sir Vincent Rogers coming back. Trevor Harris is good. Armanti Edwards and Rodney Smith will help Ellingson and Collins. Three good national receivers. Tons of beef on both lines. Pipkin as a backup this year. Scott Milanovich.
4) BC: Theoretically it's all there. Paying Claybrooks makes Campbells job safer. Better depth, solid role players. Seem to be expecting lots from Lemar Durant. I thought they were not as bad as their record last year but they have to win games.
5} Winnipeg: Zach Collaros made a big difference. Worst move of the entire year was O'Day trading him away. Stanley Bryant hasn't missed a game in 5 years. Andrew Harris about the same. The 3 yr contract extension to Darvin Adams and bringing back JFG makes no sense. I see them missing Lapo. Wishing Buck Pierce the best. Paying Jefferson and Bighill too much to have anything left for others. Micah Awe and Toby Antigua will help. 9 - 9 if they went 18.
6) Saskatchewan: Played hard all year. Elimimian was golden for them and he has good help on defence. Will need Zach Evans to replace Micah Johnson but still. AC Leonard as good as Willie Jefferson imo. Cody Fajardo comes down to earth. Everyone watched the film. They scratch and claw their way into the playoffs maybe. Another 9 - 9 team.
7) Ottawa: Feel good story of the off season so far. Lets hope they don't go broke before they get to play. High marks for going with Lapo and Benivides. Love the Jalen Saunders signing. Coombs will play the same role Demski did in the playbook. Cleyon Laing and Don Unamba join Benny's D.
8) Montreal: Imagine the league will step back in if there are issues. Als had a fun team last year. Maybe they do it again. Get past the loud jacket and Henoc Muamba is a pretty good player. They need to beat a crossover so a slow start won't do. People seem to like Bob Slowik.
9) Toronto: Sorry Pinball. I see growing pains. I see a QB controversy. The coaching staff is young and inexperienced. Weird to me that Dinwiddie didn't want to work with Claybrooks it seems. I like Brescacin and Davaris Daniels. Drake Nevis will plug the middle. Would love to see progress made but unrealsistic expectations need to be tempered.
Pandemic Power Rankings
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Great discussion point. I can't argue much with these rankings other than to move Calgary and Ottawa each down a notch.Murdoch wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:00 amFootball anyone? Depth charts are out. Prior to everything being locked down there were plenty of moves going on in anticipation of a normal year. Just thought it might be a change to look at some of that. Realize it is all speculative.
1) Hamilton: delay works in favour of Jerimiah Masoli. Cats have top level QB's. Watched tape of the Grey Cup and reacquired Larry Dean. Solid regular season team. Top adds Dean, Posey, Don Jackson.
2) Calgary: Bo Levi is a determined man. Welcome home Sean McEwen. Potential fixture for the next 7 years. Questions abound with Eric Rogers and Kamar Jordan and at MLB. Count on Huff to fill the holes and be competitive.
3)Edmonton: Believe it will be the Eskimos chasing the Stamps. The back to backs at Labour Day would decide first place. An already good offensive line will improve with Sir Vincent Rogers coming back. Trevor Harris is good. Armanti Edwards and Rodney Smith will help Ellingson and Collins. Three good national receivers. Tons of beef on both lines. Pipkin as a backup this year. Scott Milanovich.
4) BC: Theoretically it's all there. Paying Claybrooks makes Campbells job safer. Better depth, solid role players. Seem to be expecting lots from Lemar Durant. I thought they were not as bad as their record last year but they have to win games.
5} Winnipeg: Zach Collaros made a big difference. Worst move of the entire year was O'Day trading him away. Stanley Bryant hasn't missed a game in 5 years. Andrew Harris about the same. The 3 yr contract extension to Darvin Adams and bringing back JFG makes no sense. I see them missing Lapo. Wishing Buck Pierce the best. Paying Jefferson and Bighill too much to have anything left for others. Micah Awe and Toby Antigua will help. 9 - 9 if they went 18.
6) Saskatchewan: Played hard all year. Elimimian was golden for them and he has good help on defence. Will need Zach Evans to replace Micah Johnson but still. AC Leonard as good as Willie Jefferson imo. Cody Fajardo comes down to earth. Everyone watched the film. They scratch and claw their way into the playoffs maybe. Another 9 - 9 team.
7) Ottawa: Feel good story of the off season so far. Lets hope they don't go broke before they get to play. High marks for going with Lapo and Benivides. Love the Jalen Saunders signing. Coombs will play the same role Demski did in the playbook. Cleyon Laing and Don Unamba join Benny's D.
8) Montreal: Imagine the league will step back in if there are issues. Als had a fun team last year. Maybe they do it again. Get past the loud jacket and Henoc Muamba is a pretty good player. They need to beat a crossover so a slow start won't do. People seem to like Bob Slowik.
9) Toronto: Sorry Pinball. I see growing pains. I see a QB controversy. The coaching staff is young and inexperienced. Weird to me that Dinwiddie didn't want to work with Claybrooks it seems. I like Brescacin and Davaris Daniels. Drake Nevis will plug the middle. Would love to see progress made but unrealsistic expectations need to be tempered.
1) Hamilton: A healthy Jeremiah Masoli and Brandon Banks and the coaching of Orlondo Steinauer make the Ticats the most dangerous team in the league again this year.
2) Edmonton: Scott Milanovich has plenty of tools at his disposal with quarterback Trevor Harris throwing to a solid receiving corps.
3) Calgary: John Hufnagel and Dave Dickenson have always been able to fill holes in their roster but other teams have caught up to the Stamps.
4) B.C.: The Lions have greatly improved their defence, which was one of the best in the league in the second half of 2019. I foresee a lot of offensive improvement with the change of coaching staff.
5) Winnipeg: The Bombers enjoyed a magical end to their 2019 season as Zach Collaros and Andrew Harris led them to the Grey Cup victory but Winnipeg's offence will miss the coaching of Paul LaPolice. I wish Buck Pierce well as OC.
6) Saskatchewan: The Riders overachieved last year for the team's level of talent, especially on offence. I don't consider Cody Fajardo as one of the league's top quarterbacks but Jason Maas is an improvement over Stephen McAdoo as OC.
7) Montreal: Head coach Khari Jones brought stability to the Als. Vernon Adams brought excitement. Montreal can't match Hamilton for talent but should remain the second best team in the East.
8) Ottawa: Head coach Paul LaPolice should help Ottawa climb out of the basement but I don't think the Redblacks can overtake Montreal for second in the East.
9. Toronto: Ryan Dinwiddie is on the hot seat, trying rebuild the Argos in his first head coaching assignment. I don't like his chances.
Let's hope we get a chance to put these rankings to a test.
- Great detail in your rankings Murdoch. Ironically though, I see your Bombers ranked higher than you do. But that's a big "IF" Collaros stays healthy. If not, and without Lapo's brilliant play-calling and creativity, then yea. They will fall. Others:
- I agree with Hamilton. Class of the East. Will feast on Eastern opponents again.
- Don't see Stamps at #2, but who knows? Just know that roster has been ravaged by departures. Still, they have BLM so anything's possible.
- Not convinced on Eskimos just yet. Ricky Collins Jr had a career year last year. Didn't see much of his uncharacteristic drops. Can he repeat? Love both their lines of scrimmage but some question marks on D outside D-line.
- BC seems about right. Hard to handicap but talent appears to be there and should be much better with the improved coaching staff (notice how few departed coaches were hired around the league??).
- Hmmm, Riders will be interesting. I think they have such a home-field advantage...will they be the same without fans? Still not convinced about golden boy Fajardo. Need to see it again to believe it. Great O-line helps him improvise. Talented roster, probably higher than 6 but we'll see.
- Bottom 3 on your list a "pick 'em" but Toronto has so much to prove and don't know enough about Dinwiddie. Ottawa could surprise people with all their changes. Als have talent but Vernon Adams Jr has to prove that 2019 wasn't a fluke.
DH
Roar, You Lions, Roar
Good stuff guys. Nice to see a couple of football opinions as hard as it is.
Then they change the direction and go with another defensive specialist head coach. Guaranteed different system coming up. Some nice additions though with Micah Johnson and Kenny Ladler. The draft pick is likely at least a year away from regular play. Good players help make good coaches. I think Claybrooks would have had an awesome D with the changes. People sure made a big deal about the hat.
Almost seemed at the time hiring Campbell was more about scooping Edmonton. It's not like he is coming off a Grey Cup win although he has been there in recent years. We'll see. the change has been made.
Still wondering about this. Lions D was not an issue despite being built around SMS limitations due to an emphasis on the O. In retrospect Odell Willis did a pretty good job. Shawn Lemon might lead the team in sacks again if they signed him.
Then they change the direction and go with another defensive specialist head coach. Guaranteed different system coming up. Some nice additions though with Micah Johnson and Kenny Ladler. The draft pick is likely at least a year away from regular play. Good players help make good coaches. I think Claybrooks would have had an awesome D with the changes. People sure made a big deal about the hat.
Almost seemed at the time hiring Campbell was more about scooping Edmonton. It's not like he is coming off a Grey Cup win although he has been there in recent years. We'll see. the change has been made.
The angled hat never bothered me. The losses did. There was evidence to suggest we were coming out of our funk when Reilly went down, but we did seem woefully unprepared for some games last year, likely due to Claybrook's inexperience. When I rewatch the Calgary and Hamilton games from last year, both epic collapses, I am left wondering, "How could this have happened? Why not call a timeout to settle the troops and make sure they understand their responsibilities." Instead, he tended to have a dazed expression late in games, mouth agape, like he was in his own world.Murdoch wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:39 amI think Claybrooks would have had an awesome D with the changes. People sure made a big deal about the hat.
Almost seemed at the time hiring Campbell was more about scooping Edmonton. It's not like he is coming off a Grey Cup win although he has been there in recent years. We'll see. the change has been made.
I didn't necessarily want to see Claybrooks gone but we couldn't afford another start like last year. I have more confidence in Campbell due to his experience and winning pedigree (2019 notwithstanding).
This is a mystery to me. He is a proven sack master, yet only two teams seem interested in him and only for a short time, and then he signs with the other. I am okay with moving away from Willis and Lemon and going younger/cheaper. We may miss Willis's leadership but so be it.Murdoch wrote:Shawn Lemon might lead the team in sacks again if they signed him.
DH
Roar, You Lions, Roar
Thanks David. All off the top and not very serious.
David wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:57 amI see your Bombers ranked higher than you do. But that's a big "IF" Collaros stays healthy.
I acknowledge I am harder on the Bombers than most. Your question about Zach, the most prominent unspoken concern in all of Bomberland. Reality is they were a third place team that put a run together and won the Cup. Having that last week bye and going into Calgary without Eric Rogers on the coldest day Josh Huff has ever witnessed was made to order. For the record, I think Collaros stays healthy and has a good year.
/quote]
- Not convinced on Eskimos just yet. Ricky Collins Jr had a career year last year. Didn't see much of his uncharacteristic drops. Can he repeat? Love both their lines of scrimmage but some question marks on D outside D-line.
Ricky Collins kicked around as a cap friendly guy for a few years. It was nice to see him be rewarded with the targets he got last year. Edmonton made some good acquisitions at receiver and now Collins is the guy with the bigger contract that could be on the bubble. Kevin Elliot for one probably making less.
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1 - Ticats - 2 good QBs and talent all over the roster
2 - Als - on the verge of becoming a top CFL team with Vernon Adams at QB
3 - Bombers - GC Champs ; Collaros might become a top CFL QB again; Harris best RB in the league
4 - Stamps - Huff finds a way year after year
5 - Riders - good young QB + very good defence
6 - Argos - 2 vet QBs with lots of new talent, especially as needed on D; new HC = learning problems ?
7 - BC - Reilly needs the O-line to be solid; questions on D; new HC
8 - Esks - Harris is a good QB with some receiving talent; Millanovich real iffy as a HC
9 - RedBlacks - re-build job with tons of question marks; new HC
2 - Als - on the verge of becoming a top CFL team with Vernon Adams at QB
3 - Bombers - GC Champs ; Collaros might become a top CFL QB again; Harris best RB in the league
4 - Stamps - Huff finds a way year after year
5 - Riders - good young QB + very good defence
6 - Argos - 2 vet QBs with lots of new talent, especially as needed on D; new HC = learning problems ?
7 - BC - Reilly needs the O-line to be solid; questions on D; new HC
8 - Esks - Harris is a good QB with some receiving talent; Millanovich real iffy as a HC
9 - RedBlacks - re-build job with tons of question marks; new HC