Lionbackers.com

McEwen to Calgary? According to 3DownNation’s Justin Dunk, John Hufnagel has made an offer to OL Sean McEwen.

I was surprised teams can already make offers before the players are officially free. McEwen is one of the players Lions are supposing interested in.

Maybe this week, we may hear players Hervey has made offers to.

JohnnyMusso wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2020 9:18 pm

McEwen to Calgary? According to 3DownNation’s Justin Dunk, John Hufnagel has made an offer to OL Sean McEwen.

I was surprised teams can already make offers before the players are officially free. McEwen is one of the players Lions are supposing interested in.

The process for this window has been clearly laid out in other threads here in the past few days. This gives us a known example. Calgary and any of the other 7 teams excluding Toronto can make offers to McEwen as of yesterday up to and including the 9th. Whatever Calgary has offered to McEwen is binding should he eventually choose to accept. Same goes with any offers other teams make..

Toronto will be made privy to any offers made prior to the close of the negotiating window on Feb 9th. The Argos will then have 48 hours to negotiate with McEwen if they so choose. They could walk away at that point.

Once that 48-hour period expires, McEwen will have exactly two hours — from 10 a.m. to noon ET on Feb. 11 — to accept any offer on the table, including one from Toronto. He doesn't have to accept the highest offer. Given he was born and raised in Calgary and played college for the Dinos I don't think Calgary will have to be the highest bidder to land him. If Huf is offering a fair deal somebody likely will have to overpay to get him.

He doesn't have to accept any offer either. If he doesn't accept an offer in that 2 hour window he becomes a free agent at noon on the 11th.

As for who the Lions might be interested in Hervey still has to tread lightly during this negotiation window. In normal free agency a GM can talk to several free agents more or less at the same time. Offers can be "put on the table" and "taken off the table". Nothing is truly binding until firm agreement is in place and contract registered. A GM could be in discussion with say 3 rush ends in hopes of getting one and should he get the one he wants he tell the rest sorry but we're no longer interested. In this new process the GM could negotiate with 3 rush ends and make formal offers to all 3 to hedge his bets of securing one of them. However the offers are binding. Conceivably he could wind up with none of them or could wind up with all 3...…...and he wouldn't know that until sometime during the 2 hours before official free agency starts. Same thing could play out if there are 3 big ticket FAs of different positions he's interested in but knows he only has cap room for 1. Can't really make 3 big ticket offers because as the offers are binding he could wind up getting all 3 and put himself into an immediate need to dump salary elsewhere.

It's going to be very interesting watching this play out.

Presumably a player's agent can use this 7 day period to canvas other teams to figure out the interest level for player. I wonder if this will lead to more extensions near the start of "official" free agency than in years past.

Dusty wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:23 am

Presumably a player's agent can use this 7 day period to canvas other teams to figure out the interest level for player. I wonder if this will lead to more extensions near the start of "official" free agency than in years past.

That's part of the idea. The CFL is really hoping this new process will lend itself to more players staying put thus less turnover.

In theory the incumbent team can continue to negotiate right through. The other 8 can also negotiate and tender offers during the 7 days. Many of the decisions to accept either their incumbent team's offer or that of another will fall just prior to noon ET next Tuesday. I think what we may see happen is a lot of players won't be getting offers until they become free agents. I'm thinking teams cannot go willy-nilly sending a dozen offers out there hoping to get a couple of players of high interest lest they get them all. Instead they will have to prioritize and be selective on who they make offers to then wait until those players have made their decisions to find out who, if anybody, they landed and how that impacts their cap and depth chart before pursuing others. As such it may only be the top 15 to 20 pending FAs who will garner offers while the rest have to wait for the free agency door to open up wide.

I agree with Hambone’s assessment. Overall, it’s a buyer’s market.

Want a starting offensive or defensive lineman or defensive back? There are plenty of candidates on the market, and most will likely still be there next week.

Want a game-breaking all-star and potential CFL Award winner? Make your best offer and hope nobody beats it.

I can see the Lions making offers to Jefferson, Elimimian and possibly McEwen but they can’t afford to go all in on all three offers.

B.C.FAN wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2020 2:54 pm

I agree with Hambone’s assessment. Overall, it’s a buyer’s market.

Want a starting offensive or defensive lineman or defensive back? There are plenty of candidates on the market, and most will likely still be there next week.

Want a game-breaking all-star and potential CFL Award winner? Make your best offer and hope nobody beats it.

I can see the Lions making offers to Jefferson, Elimimian and possibly McEwen but they can’t afford to go all in on all three offers.

Lions will not be making an offer to Elimimian this year after Hervey gave him the boot last year and claimed that Elimimian was past his best before date. Hervey was wrong and he is not about to admit it.

B.C.FAN wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2020 2:54 pm

I can see the Lions making offers to Jefferson, Elimimian and possibly McEwen but they can’t afford to go all in on all three offers.

I see the Bombers' Michael Couture being a better "value pick" for the Leos than McEwen. Couture is young too (he turns 26 in a few days) but is versatile; he can play anywhere on the line. I believe the Hervey would sign him as a centre if he goes in this direction. However, Hervey may believe he has enough money tied up in existing Olinemen and see priorities elsewhere on the field. Thus, they could well come to camp with Godber and Norman (Roy and Peirson for depth?) and see if Godber is ready for a starting role. Snapping issues aside, I thought Phillip Norman performed quite well at center.

The other thing is with Couture is that he is a Burnaby kid with Winnipeg roots. His Dad is Bombers fan but moved the family to the Lower Mainland where Michael was born. Sadly, Mr. Couture is quite ill right now which may make playing close to home a priority for the SFU grad.


DH

Argos sign Matt Nichols to a 3 year contract

https://www.cfl.ca/2020/02/04/report-ar ... l-nichols/

The Bombers have signed Michael Couture to a two-year extension. With Sean McEwen already signed in Calgary, it looks like the Lions will retool their O-line from within by giving bigger roles to Peter Godber and David Knevel.

B.C.FAN wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 10, 2020 6:58 am

The Bombers have signed Michael Couture to a two-year extension. With Sean McEwen already signed in Calgary, it looks like the Lions will retool their O-line from within by giving bigger roles to Peter Godber and David Knevel.

Down to slim (strange term for OL) pickings on the OL front. Only 16 pending or recently released FAs still available. Of them only 7 are NATs and one time Leo Jeremy Zver retired 2 years ago. Amongst the remaining seven are current Lions Foucault and Roy.

Tossing them aside as unlikely to be re-signed there remains former 1st overall draft pick and bust Josiah St. John who had a cup of coffee in BC last year, Rider geezer Phillip Blake who at this stage of his career would only serve as a depth player, Rider Dariusz Bladek and recently release Argo Tyler Holmes. The latter 2 are really the only NATs worth pursuing unless BC circles back to Foucault