2019 CFL Season

[WhipperSnapper]

I doubt MLSE is all that interested in owning the Argos. They probably bought them because they don't want anyone else owning them.

[Acajack]

Owning the Argos is basically pocket change for MLSE.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I doubt MLSE is all that interested in owning the Argos. They probably bought them because they don't want anyone else owning them.

It's all about content. I don't think Rogers got in on the deal for altruistic reasons. They had a reason to change their mind and join the other two thirds of MLSE. Rumour was they wanted a game of the week, but who knows?

[elly63]

Missed the early part of the CFL draft but just went back and looked and it looks to me that the Bombers are the early winners so far.

John Hodge’s 2019 CFL mock draft 3.0
John Hodge May 1, 2019

DL Jonathan Kongbo, Tennessee

Kongbo would be in the NFL had it not been for the torn ACL he suffered in October. The Tennessee product is an excellent athlete with a remarkable wingspan at six-foot-six and 270 pounds.

Scouts see the Surrey, B.C. native as a versatile defender who could contribute at defensive end or as a three-technique.

OL Drew Desjarlais, Windsor

The Bombers lost grit and athleticism when Sukh Chungh left for B.C. in free agency. Chungh was more polished coming out of Calgary four years ago than Desjarlais is now but the nastiness and athleticism is there.

Desjarlais is a physical run blocker with a power-oriented game, making him a perfect fit in Winnipeg. With time the Lancer standout should develop the pass protection side of his game to become a well-rounded guard.

RB Brady Oliveira, North Dakota

Oliveira didn’t run a great forty-yard dash at his pro day, but the tailback should contribute on special teams early in his career with the potential to develop into a rare every-down Canadian running back.

[elly63]

Riders looking good as well

REC Justin McInnis, Arkansas State

McInnis is considered by many to be the best receiver prospect in the draft. He produced respectably at the NCAA level, tested well, and has a great frame at six-foot-four and 212 pounds. He checks every box.

McInnis has mini-camp invites from the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans after tearing up the Sun Belt Conference.

REC Brayden Lenius-Dickey, New Mexico

Lenius-Dickey has an impressive frame at six-foot-five and 243 pounds. He can play wideout, slotback, fullback, H-back, tight end, and will be a beast on special teams. Teams are salivating over the opportunity to draft this NCAA product

[elly63]

Jim Popp of the Argos, who has a history of recruiting Canadian QBs, picks UBC's Michael O'Connor 20th overall. This is the closest guy to have the potential of being the next Russ Jackson. He also has an invite to a Seattle Seahawks mini camp.

[Eau Claire]

Originally Posted by elly63

Riders looking good as well

REC Justin McInnis, Arkansas State

McInnis is considered by many to be the best receiver prospect in the draft. He produced respectably at the NCAA level, tested well, and has a great frame at six-foot-four and 212 pounds. He checks every box.

McInnis has mini-camp invites from the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans after tearing up the Sun Belt Conference.

REC Brayden Lenius-Dickey, New Mexico

Lenius-Dickey has an impressive frame at six-foot-five and 243 pounds. He can play wideout, slotback, fullback, H-back, tight end, and will be a beast on special teams. Teams are salivating over the opportunity to draft this NCAA product

McInnis is 6'4" 212 and he's the 2nd biggest receiver we drafted today. Too soon to say who won the draft. There's too much uncertainty about who might stick in the NFL or how soon injured players like Kongbo might be back. In these CBA negotiations I'd like to see them put in some set salaries for drafted players, like they have in other leagues, and I'd like to see them borrow from the AAF had have players sign with the league first. I'll explain that a bit more. I'd like the league to pick a date, maybe two to three weeks after the NFL draft, and require the players eligible for the CFL draft to decide what they're going to do. Are they going to keep trying the NFL this year, or are they ready to commit to the CFL? If they commit to the CFL then they sign a contract with the league, and only those players would be in the draft. When the player got drafted they would get paid according to where they got drafted, and that contract would be transfered to the team that drafted them. You could have the draft very shortly before training camp this way, because all the players would be signed and committed before the draft. For the players that decided to keep trying the NFL you could either have them wait until next year or you could have a second draft later in the year.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by elly63

Riders looking good as well

REC Justin McInnis, Arkansas State

McInnis is considered by many to be the best receiver prospect in the draft. He produced respectably at the NCAA level, tested well, and has a great frame at six-foot-four and 212 pounds. He checks every box.

McInnis has mini-camp invites from the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans after tearing up the Sun Belt Conference.

REC Brayden Lenius-Dickey, New Mexico

Lenius-Dickey has an impressive frame at six-foot-five and 243 pounds. He can play wideout, slotback, fullback, H-back, tight end, and will be a beast on special teams. Teams are salivating over the opportunity to draft this NCAA product

Which all means pretty much nothing with the quarterback situation. Hopefully Collaros is better this year, but he hasn't looked the same since the last concussion.

Who won the draft is a combination of needs and gets. I don't think the Riders did a great job, but it is also difficult to gauge given all the front-office movement. We don't really know the direction the team is taking yet, but if it is continuing what Monsieur Jones was doing then it's a bit of a miss. OL would have figured higher for me if the running game is the only offensive game plan you have and they aren't going to solve the passing game with a receiver.

It's going to be an interesting season. Probably a long one, but interesting.

[Eau Claire]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Which all means pretty much nothing with the quarterback situation. Hopefully Collaros is better this year, but he hasn't looked the same since the last concussion.

Who won the draft is a combination of needs and gets. I don't think the Riders did a great job, but it is also difficult to gauge given all the front-office movement. We don't really know the direction the team is taking yet, but if it is continuing what Monsieur Jones was doing then it's a bit of a miss. OL would have figured higher for me if the running game is the only offensive game plan you have and they aren't going to solve the passing game with a receiver.

It's going to be an interesting season. Probably a long one, but interesting.

Now here's an odd post. We finished second in the league with Collaros last year. I think we do know which way this team is going, since all our new people were part of Jones' team. Jones took us from a terrible 3-15 team to second place in the league in 3 years, and that's certainly the direction I and most Rider fans want to be going in. You prefer something different? On the OL we have Labatte, Blake, Bladek. Clark, and Shepley, and a couple of other decent prospects, all for 3 spots. Why do you think we need an OL? We finished second in the league last year, and we lost far fewer players than the other top teams. Calgary lost half their defence. Winnipeg lost 3 very good Canadian starters. Ottawa lost most of their top players. I think most people are picking the Riders for first. The odds, otoh, makers are betting that the loss of Jones is going to hurt us a lot, but you don't seem to like Jones, and yet you seem to be predicting that we're somehow going to fall back because he's gone. Very strange.

[esquire]

So the Grey Cup got a new base to replace the one dating back to 1987. Not a major change, but it looks a bit nicer. Apparently the big difference is that this base is designed to accommodate new plates to replace old ones which will be placed in the Hall of Fame:



Here's the evolution of the Grey Cup:



More here: https://www.cfl.ca/2019/05/03/iconic...gets-new-base/

[Eau Claire]

That looks good but I’d like to see them find a way to keep the names on the trophy. Maybe they could have a two layered base? I’m thinking of a clamshell type thing that could open up show the names on a layer behind the first one.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by Eau Claire

Now here's an odd post. We finished second in the league with Collaros last year. I think we do know which way this team is going, since all our new people were part of Jones' team. Jones took us from a terrible 3-15 team to second place in the league in 3 years, and that's certainly the direction I and most Rider fans want to be going in. You prefer something different? On the OL we have Labatte, Blake, Bladek. Clark, and Shepley, and a couple of other decent prospects, all for 3 spots. Why do you think we need an OL? We finished second in the league last year, and we lost far fewer players than the other top teams. Calgary lost half their defence. Winnipeg lost 3 very good Canadian starters. Ottawa lost most of their top players. I think most people are picking the Riders for first. The odds, otoh, makers are betting that the loss of Jones is going to hurt us a lot, but you don't seem to like Jones, and yet you seem to be predicting that we're somehow going to fall back because he's gone. Very strange.

We lost a key piece of the defence and a good special teams player. The defence and special teams accounted for a lot of our points. While I never liked Jones, he knew how to get the most out of his defense. While people may know the blueprint of his team, they are not him when it comes to calling defences. For such a great offensive line we scored the least passing TDs and the second least rushing TDs. Despite being 12-6 we were only +6 on point differential. The team that was third in the league was +44 and fourth was +131. Fortunate does not begin to describe the Roughriders season last year.

I admire your optimism for this team, but I don't share it.

[Eau Claire]

We lost one and gained one on defence. We lost Jefferson and gained Micah Johnson. We lost Francis on STs but we have others, and we drafted an athletic freak in Janke, who is raw but also has a chance to turn into a good DB. Two years ago we passed for over 5,000, with McAdoo as our OC. That was just slightly more than Calgary. What happened last year was circumstantial. Collaros got hurt early, and Bridge played terribly in his place. After that we were concerned about Collaros’ health, and we were concerned that we didn’t have a decent backup if he went down, so we were conservative with him, and it worked. The objective is to win, after all, not to put up huge stats. It had nothing to do with teh OL. We gave up the fewest sacks in the league. Imo, the one thing we still need is a good veteran backup QB in case Collaros goes down again, and I’d like it to be either Ray or Lulay. I know Lulay has officially retired but he wouldn’t be the first player to change his mind. Losing Jones was a HUGE loss. He was a great GM, HC, and DC. He was poised to be the next Huff or Wally in his prime. Losing Jones was a massive loss for both the team and the league, but I’m optimistic that the understudies can step up and keep going with the plan. This draft was very much a Jones draft, so I’m encouraged by that. Our motto for this year should be, “What would Jones do?”

[blueandgoldguy]

Jones was a good coach, mostly on defense. His work as a GM left a lot to be desired. He never found a qb in all his years with the Riders. The Canadian content is average to below average at this point. Many questionable draft picks and the O-line is suspect. Sacks don't tell the whole story as the Riders offense was designed for several short passes...I also think the Riders had among the fewest passes in the league last year which would also lower the possibility of the Qb sacks.

It was Jones defensive schemes that allowed the Riders to post the record they did last year. Unless this continues with the new coaches, or Collaros has some sort of resurgence (unlikely), I expect the Riders to finish 4th or 5th in the division in 2019.

[Eau Claire]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

Jones was a good coach, mostly on defense. His work as a GM left a lot to be desired. He never found a qb in all his years with the Riders. The Canadian content is average to below average at this point. Many questionable draft picks and the O-line is suspect. Sacks don't tell the whole story as the Riders offense was designed for several short passes...I also think the Riders had among the fewest passes in the league last year which would also lower the possibility of the Qb sacks.

It was Jones defensive schemes that allowed the Riders to post the record they did last year. Unless this continues with the new coaches, or Collaros has some sort of resurgence (unlikely), I expect the Riders to finish 4th or 5th in the division in 2019.

With that description you’d hardly know that we finished 12 and 6 last year and second place in the league, and two games ahead of the Bombers! Top tier QBs are hard to acquire. The Bombers still don’t have one. I’d bet that if Reynolds had managed to sign Jones to a long term contract that would have given Reilly the security to sign with us, but Reynolds failed. Still, Collaros has been a top tier guy, and even last year in protection mode he was good enough to get us to 2nd in the league. If we can sign Lulay or Ray as insurance then we can be more aggressive with Collaros, but we might not even need that.

I’m not even sure what you’re talking about with the OL. It did struggle a bit at the beginning of last year, but that was because of injuries and an unexpected retirement. During the year we got healthy, and we acquired Blake, and this year we signed Shepley, who many thought was the best player in last year’s draft, so we have a much better OL going into this year. As far as the draft in general goes, we may have the best record over this last 3 years, although I’d have to have a closer look to be sure. I believe there are 12 players who we drafted who are either on the team now, or who were on the team last year and still haven’t signed with anyone. And we had a few more who made our team but who have moved on by trade or free agency. Wrt where we’ll finish, in the off season both Winnipeg and Calgary took steps back, losing several key players, but the Riders either stayed the same or took a step forward, and yet you think we’re going to fall from 2nd to 4th or 5th in the west?? That doesn’t sound like an objective opinion to me.

[UrbanClimate]

Interesting CBC article ....

Who needs Tom Brady? The growing popularity of competitive women's tackle football in Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/venezu...nada-1.5116906

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Owning the Argos is basically pocket change for MLSE.

The Argonauts are a depressed asset so its value can really only go up. There are also cost synergies from owning the 2 major tenants at BMO Field. The Argonauts may never be the important sports franchise it once was but it could certainly become more relevant than it is now with a stable, deep pocketed owner that's in it for the long haul.

[TimB09]

Originally Posted by elly63

Jim Popp of the Argos, who has a history of recruiting Canadian QBs, picks UBC's Michael O'Connor 20th overall. This is the closest guy to have the potential of being the next Russ Jackson. He also has an invite to a Seattle Seahawks mini camp.

O'Connor didn't get offered a contact after the mini-camp with the Seahawks. Doesn't mean he can't be offered by another team but it's looking like he may on the Argos roster this season.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by TimB09

O'Connor didn't get offered a contact after the mini-camp with the Seahawks. Doesn't mean he can't be offered by another team but it's looking like he may on the Argos roster this season.

O'Connor, Bridge and Picton are on the Toronto roster, sad that it takes an American to recognize and nurture Canadian talent or be in the position to do same.

[esquire]

^ Maybe time to start counting Canadian QBs toward the ratio, having someone parked there to bolster the numbers can't be much worse than the current arrangement, which is to have almost no Canadian QBs at all (Argos notwithstanding).