Drew Willy

[Argo57]

This, to me, indicates the return of Barker -- and most likely Milanovich.
Sink or swim with Willy I guess. I personally would not gamble my job on this QB because that is what these guys will be doing.
I hope I am wrong, and I could be, but Milanovich and Barker are stubborn. This to me is a weakness.
My guess is that Willy and Ray are at the helm with the youngsters (Fajardo & Kilgore) in the stable.
The chances of a mid season reshuffle have just gone up.

They (Barker and Milanovich) were the "masterminds" behind this trade so of course they will continue the party line that Willy is their man, both appear to be returning at this point and have a couple more years on their own contracts so they will be paid no matter what happens.

[Wobbler]

I don't think it's fair to characterize Barker and Milanovich as people who care more about sticking with "their guys" than winning. We've seen many recent examples where - rightly or wrongly - players around whom the team was built were let go.

[Argo57]

I don't think it's fair to characterize Barker and Milanovich as people who care more about sticking with "their guys" than winning. We've seen many recent examples where - rightly or wrongly - players around whom the team was built were let go.

Who said they don't care about winning?
In their judgement trading for Willy gives them a better chance to win in the future which has been the focus of the debate in regards to keeping Barker and Milanovich.
Some decent assets were given up for Willy so of course they will give him every opportunity to succeed.
Will be interesting to see how long they stick with Willy if he struggles early in 2017.

[ArgoRavi]

IMO, it is too early to have a final determination on the question of whether Willy can be a successful starter for the Argos. Take a look at the 2016 passing stats for the CFL:

13	REILLY, Mike	EDM	17	448	633	70.8	5554	12	28	104.5	1.9	8.8
19	MITCHELL, Bo Levi	CGY	17	412	606	68.0	5385	8	32	107.9	1.3	8.9
10	JENNINGS, Jonathon	BC	18	371	554	67.0	5226	15	27	102.2	2.7	9.4
4	DURANT, Darian	SSK	15	330	496	66.5	3839	7	14	93.3	1.4	7.7
15	NICHOLS, Matt	WPG	15	327	471	69.4	3666	9	18	97.1	1.9	7.8
7	HARRIS, Trevor	OTT	12	242	330	73.3	3301	4	16	116.0	1.2	10.0
4	COLLAROS, Zach	HAM	10	232	347	66.9	2938	8	18	100.8	2.3	8.5
8	MASOLI, Jeremiah	HAM	10	230	332	69.3	2695	12	15	93.6	3.6	8.1
5	GLENN, Kevin	WPG	10	224	318	70.4	2563	11	13	93.6	3.5	8.1
1	BURRIS, Henry	OTT	8	180	264	68.2	2419	9	12	98.0	3.4	9.2
15	RAY, Ricky	TOR	9	222	298	74.5	2397	6	15	106.1	2.0	8.0
5	WILLY, Drew	WPG	9	214	304	70.4	2154	5	8	92.2	1.6	7.1
12	CATO, Rakeem	MTL	11	122	181	67.4	1403	2	8	100.7	1.1	7.8
8	GALE, Mitchell	SSK	9	79	137	57.7	950	3	2	74.8	2.2	6.9
18	LEFEVOUR, Dan	TOR	4	73	105	69.5	779	6	6	86.2	5.7	7.4
10	KILGORE, Logan	TOR	7	63	114	55.3	728	10	2	44.0	8.8	6.4
3	ADAMS JR, Vernon	MTL	4	42	75	56.0	575	1	4	92.9	1.3	7.7
2	FRANKLIN, James	EDM	2	19	24	79.2	334	0	4	181.6	0.0	13.9
16	JENSEN, Brock	OTT	4	29	43	67.4	330	0	2	105.8	0.0	7.7
4	TATE, Drew	CGY	3	27	43	62.8	255	2	0	59.7	4.7	5.9
14	LULAY, Travis	BC	7	22	32	68.8	205	2	2	80.9	6.2	6.4
9	MATHEWS, Jeff	HAM	1	18	29	62.1	201	1	1	79.8	3.4	6.9
16	BRIDGE, Brandon	SSK	3	11	13	84.6	163	0	0	124.8	0.0	12.5
5	O'BRIEN, Danny	OTT	3	12	26	46.2	141	2	0	31.1	7.7	5.4
17	FAJARDO, Cody	TOR	4	11	18	61.1	107	0	2	114.8	0.0	5.9

Willy's numbers are not bad, are are comparable to other QB's who have been successful. If you look at prior years, this holds true as well, even though in one full season with Winnipeg he was sacked 67 times. Shortly, after he arrived in T.O., our supposedly best three receivers were released and he was left trying to learn a new system with receivers who had never started much, behind a very porous OL that could not provide any real protection. I admit he did not look great at times, but it was a difficult position to be put in.

The other question I have for all those who are so against giving him a chance, is who do we go to? While Cody Fajardo shows promise, he is not ready to be a starter and neither Dan LeFevour or Logan Kilgore appear to be viable candidates either. As far as having let Trevor Harris and Zach Collaros go, both of them have had their issues, and neither can be said to be a premier QB... yet. Finally, when you look at what experienced QB's might be available through either free agency or trade, none jumps out as being vastly superior to Drew Willy.

I am not naive, and am not saying he is going to be our saviour, but he has to be given a legitimate chance.

Very well said again, RB957! I have followed this league for 40 years now and have seen many QBs that were worse than Drew Willy. I still think he has the potential to be a star in this league but what he needs more than anything is to get his confidence back. I will certainly be cheering for him as the more success he has, the more the Argos as a team will have.

[jerrym]

Very well said again, RB957! I have followed this league for 40 years now and have seen many QBs that were worse than Drew Willy. I still think he has the potential to be a star in this league but what he needs more than anything is to get his confidence back. I will certainly be cheering for him as the more success he has, the more the Argos as a team will have.

I too think he can be successful provided he gets good protection because of his lack of mobility.

[Stevoman]

A restructured deal was crucial. Still sounds too high though. I think he should be in the 250,000 range with incentives, similar to what Ray signed last year. This is largely an unproven QB with fragile confidence and should not be guaranteed or assumed the starters position. Bring him in but I really hope it is an open competition. At least he's not going to make what he was due under his Winnipeg deal.

[PullTogether73]

How do you get worse than last place?

LOL!
Good point.

Technically, the Argos could win less than 5 games next year and that would be worse than this year.

[gilthethrill]

Don't be fooled by Willy's numbers. John Hodge who followed the Bombers for 3downnation constantly mentioned that Willy put up big numbers.....In Garbage Time. Sorry but he has really done nothing in the CFL and I have no reason to be optimistic that this season will be any different.

[paulwoods13]

Has anyone considered that "He'll make more than 300K as the starter, plus incentives, this year" might mean he'll make more than $300k IF he is the starter? Considering that Barker offered deals conditional on the playing time to both Ray and Harris last year, it seems logical to me that he would make similar offers to Willy and Ray this year. Whoever wins the starting job and plays most of the games makes most of the money. I have a hard time believing Willy has already been promised the starting job.

[Argo57]

Has anyone considered that "He'll make more than 300K as the starter, plus incentives, this year" might mean he'll make more than $300k IF he is the starter? Considering that Barker offered deals conditional on the playing time to both Ray and Harris last year, it seems logical to me that he would make similar offers to Willy and Ray this year. Whoever wins the starting job and plays most of the games makes most of the money. I have a hard time believing Willy has already been promised the starting job.

Also CFL contracts are not guaranteed.

[R.J]

and the idiocy continues.

[Neely2005]

Has anyone considered that "He'll make more than 300K as the starter, plus incentives, this year" might mean he'll make more than $300k IF he is the starter? Considering that Barker offered deals conditional on the playing time to both Ray and Harris last year, it seems logical to me that he would make similar offers to Willy and Ray this year. Whoever wins the starting job and plays most of the games makes most of the money. I have a hard time believing Willy has already been promised the starting job.

Hopefully it's incentive based like Ray.

[RB957]

Don't be fooled by Willy's numbers. John Hodge who followed the Bombers for 3downnation constantly mentioned that Willy put up big numbers.....In Garbage Time. Sorry but he has really done nothing in the CFL and I have no reason to be optimistic that this season will be any different.

If you don't look at his numbers, what then? Over the past 5 years, he has played in 76 games, completing 67% of his passes for over 8,500 yds, 7.9 yds per attempt and 11.7 yds per catch and 39 TD's. His INT percentage was 2.7 and he had a 91.6 QB rating. Compare him to any other QB in the league and there's not that much of a difference. So how can you say he has "done nothing" in the CFL? Regarding the comment about numbers being put up in garbage time.... no surprise.... Winnipeg was a garbage team.

I will agree with the comment made by a poster above, that Willy did look scared and a bit confused in the last games he played, so regaining his confidence is going to be a major factor for him if he is to have any success. But c'mon, let's give the guy a chance.

[Neely2005]

If you don't look at his numbers, what then? Over the past 5 years, he has played in 76 games, completing 67% of his passes for over 8,500 yds, 7.9 yds per attempt and 11.7 yds per catch and 39 TD's. His INT percentage was 2.7 and he had a 91.6 QB rating. Compare him to any other QB in the league and there's not that much of a difference. So how can you say he has "done nothing" in the CFL? Regarding the comment about numbers being put up in garbage time.... no surprise.... Winnipeg was a garbage team.

I will agree with the comment made by a poster above, that Willy did look scared and a bit confused in the last games he played, so regaining his confidence is going to be a major factor for him if he is to have any success. But c'mon, let's give the guy a chance.

How much of a chance? Didn't he get a chance at the end of the 2016 regular season?

[gilthethrill]

If you don't look at his numbers, what then? Over the past 5 years, he has played in 76 games, completing 67% of his passes for over 8,500 yds, 7.9 yds per attempt and 11.7 yds per catch and 39 TD's. His INT percentage was 2.7 and he had a 91.6 QB rating. Compare him to any other QB in the league and there's not that much of a difference. So how can you say he has "done nothing" in the CFL? Regarding the comment about numbers being put up in garbage time.... no surprise.... Winnipeg was a garbage team.

I will agree with the comment made by a poster above, that Willy did look scared and a bit confused in the last games he played, so regaining his confidence is going to be a major factor for him if he is to have any success. But c'mon, let's give the guy a chance.

Well, if Willy put up numbers while the game was still in doubt, that would be different. Winnipeg did improve when Willy got demoted...did they not?

[ArgoGabe22]

How much of a chance? Didn't he get a chance at the end of the 2016 regular season?

They kind of just threw him in there so I'm not sure how much was it that the coaches were setting him up for failure before taking his first snap or if he is already damaged goods.. Hopefully, with a full training camp and improvements made on the line and experienced receivers can help him regain his form and confidence.

[OV Argo]

and the idiocy continues.

No $hite.

The good thing still could be - contracts are of course not guaranteed, and Willy could just be cut in TC; doubt that is going to happen without a new GM & HC - cause it seems Barker & Millanovich are staking their Argo lives on this idiot move - and there is still a chance that this Argo "braintrust" / ownership cans the dynamic duo before the season begins for a fresh start ...

A new coaching staff given complete authority on roster moves could have real TC competition - let Willy compete for QB and if he continues to be next to useless as a QB, then he gets cut; if he makes the team, then his salary should be in line with his position - an "experienced" 3rd stringer with Willy's iffy QB skills should not be making more than 100K - IMO - CFL teams should be able to sign a young QB with some skills and potential, and the guy would start at under $100K. I'd be willing to be there would be several top CIS QBs who would jump at such an opportunity.

[1971GreyCup]

Given that we're not sure what the problem was in the disastrous 2016 season, and the price we paid for DW, I support letting this experiment continue in 2017. I am glad we took the risk on Lirim Hajrullahu from Winnipeg. That one worked out nicely and credit goes to JB. Also, the way CFL contracts are structured the downside risk should be minimal.

[Shatto]

It would appear that Barker is being retained. If he was going to be released, it would be unlikely that he would have been given the go ahead on the decision of signing Willy. That decision would have been left to his successor, who might have preferred to go another way for the QB situation. It is not as clear re the coaching situation, as a new coach could still decide that another QB might be preferable and since Willy's contract is not guaranteed Willy could be let go after training camp at no cost.
Based on Willy's performance in Winnipeg and his short time as an Argo, it appears unlikely that he is the answer at QB for the team. Hopefully, he proves us wrong and competes at a high level but I doubt it.

[Neely2005]

They kind of just threw him in there so I'm not sure how much was it that the coaches were setting him up for failure before taking his first snap or if he is already damaged goods.. Hopefully, with a full training camp and improvements made on the line and experienced receivers can help him regain his form and confidence.

So how long is a fair evaluation period? 3 starts? 6 starts?