2017 Free Agent Tracker

[OV Argo]

I'm shocked that the copy and paste functions on your computer haven't worn out yet.

If my CFL GOB axiom of ignorance, bias & myopia (IBM theory) bothers you so much, why don't you provide tons of evidence to show that it does not really exist. You could perhaps start with Ottawa winning the GC last season. Want to bet on how many NI starters the Argos use this season with Jimmy P in charge ? How bout ego-Jones with the Riders or Kenty in Hamilton ?

Your copy & paste function wore out a long time ago here after using it a million times to tell us that Tom Clements was not a very good CFL QB. ;o)

[AngeloV]

If my CFL GOB axiom of ignorance, bias & myopia (IBM theory) bothers you so much, why don't you provide tons of evidence to show that it does not really exist. You could perhaps start with Ottawa winning the GC last season. Want to bet on how many NI starters the Argos use this season with Jimmy P in charge ? How bout ego-Jones with the Riders or Kenty in Hamilton ?

Your copy & paste function wore out a long time ago here after using it a million times to tell us that Tom Clements was not a very good CFL QB. ;o)

Because just like in law, these people are innocent until proven guilty. The onus is on you to prove this, not me. Your theory is broken by the fact that you include Wally Buono in the group of GOB's. If there really was a bias against Canadians as you claim, why would a Canadian with power not do something to prove this? And "Kenty" as you so like to call him, has hired a CIS guy as his OC. But you probably think it's only to corrupt him into GOB thinking.

Don't know why I'm biting on this, but as for Clements, I never said he wasn't good. Just overrated, and didn't deserve to win the MOP award in '87. He wasn't even the best player on his own team. That was Willard Reeves.

[ArgoRavi]

Because just like in law, these people are innocent until proven guilty. The onus is on you to prove this, not me. Your theory is broken by the fact that you include Wally Buono in the group of GOB's. If there really was a bias against Canadians as you claim, why would a Canadian with power not do something to prove this? And "Kenty" as you so like to call him, has hired a CIS guy as his OC. But you probably think it's only to corrupt him into GOB thinking.

Do former CIS stalwarts like Kyle Walters and Mike O'Shea qualify as GOBs or have they too been corrupted? I read an article recently in which Walters was against the idea of mandating that CFL teams have their third QB be Canadian.

[OV Argo]

Do former CIS stalwarts like Kyle Walters and Mike O'Shea qualify as GOBs or have they too been corrupted? I read an article recently in which Walters was against the idea of mandating that CFL teams have their third QB be Canadian.

I believe we have discussed that before Ravi - and IMO, Walters & O'Shea have qualifed/ passed (or failed i guess ;o) the smell test of GOBness - very sad IMO, but they are just following standard CFL procedure and maybe get to keep their jobs in doing so. (If you really want a detailed break-down of why/how I think they adopted GOB behaviour - I could PM you i guess ;o).

Ottawa broke the GOB yoke a bit last year in winning the GC - started/played 10 or more NIs quite a bit and had several Canadian football guys as key coaches on their staff with a Canadian GM in charge. They're still pretty GOB to me though - sorry bout that.

It would take a real rebel/iconoclast type owner & GM duo to push non-GOB behvaviour in the CFL IMHO- I'll let you know when I see it on the horizon (from my grave likely).

[doubleblue]

Do former CIS stalwarts like Kyle Walters and Mike O'Shea qualify as GOBs or have they too been corrupted? I read an article recently in which Walters was against the idea of mandating that CFL teams have their third QB be Canadian.

I don't think that the League should mandate a Canadian QB. Just make the rules 23 internationals and 21 nationals for game day, and let the Coaches figure out their QB situation. That is the only way IMO teams would eventually start finding Canadian QB's to fill one of their QB roster spots. Right now Calgary and Saskatchewan could both have a Canadian QB. Other teams would probably dress 2 American QB's and find another ex-college QB that could play WR or DB as their emergency 3rd stringer. That's the way they used to do things back in the CFL hey days.

[AngeloV]

I don't think that the League should mandate a Canadian QB. Just make the rules 23 internationals and 21 nationals for game day, and let the Coaches figure out their QB situation. That is the only way IMO teams would eventually start finding Canadian QB's to fill one of their QB roster spots. Right now Calgary and Saskatchewan could both have a Canadian QB. Other teams would probably dress 2 American QB's and find another ex-college QB that could play WR or DB as their emergency 3rd stringer. That's the way they used to do things back in the CFL hey days.

I agree, but I would like to see it at 22 of each.

[argotom]

To the contrary, I think the league does need to mandate a Canadian QB rule.
If not on the active roser, then for sure a designated PR position for let's say the first half of the season then moving to the 4th QB active squad in the second half.

[argotom]

I didn't comment previously but Greenwood is a huge loss.
I know the injuries situation, I don't get how the new staff could let him walk.

[jerrym]

I didn't comment previously but Greenwood is a huge loss.
I know the injuries situation, I don't get how the new staff could let him walk.

A healthy Greenwood would be an enormous loss. However, multiple concussions only make one susceptible to more of them. Ask Jon Cornish. Signing Greenwood was a risky proposition, but so is losing so much depth at LB with the additional loss of Miles and Yurichuk.

[jerrym]

The Argos are competing with Hamilton and Saskatchewan to sign J'Michael Deane.

@garylawless @sskroughriders @TorontoArgos @Ticats @CFL the riders must be close to going over the cap with all these signings.

— Michael Metzger (@doublemj72) March 8, 2017

[doubleblue]

I didn't comment previously but Greenwood is a huge loss.
I know the injuries situation, I don't get how the new staff could let him walk.

You hate to see a talented Canadian player like Greenwood move on. But I think one can see it from the team's prospective, his past concussion issues could easily return as in his case he is such a hard hitter. Sometimes the hitter gets hurt as much as the hittee. An all American LBing crew is much easier to interchange without losing much talent wise. They didn't have any Canadian close to Greenwood talent wise IMO as a backup replacement. Could have gone with a rotation type thing I guess. Greenwood gets subbed by an International, Waud comes in on the DLine or Matt Black at corner. That would make OV happy. lol But everybody has moved on so it is a mute point.


So that probably means going with 4 Canadians on the offensive line. Deane is ok I guess at Guard. He will take a couple of holding penalties most games. Quite often seems to happen on a long pass completion though. Maybe Trestman's quick pass offense will help guys like Deane who can't hold their blocks very long. Legally that is.

[Will]

You hate to see a talented Canadian player like Greenwood move on. But I think one can see it from the team's prospective, his past concussion issues could easily return as in his case he is such a hard hitter. Sometimes the hitter gets hurt as much as the hittee. An all American LBing crew is much easier to interchange without losing much talent wise. They didn't have any Canadian close to Greenwood talent wise IMO as a backup replacement. Could have gone with a rotation type thing I guess. Greenwood gets subbed by an International, Waud comes in on the DLine or Matt Black at corner. That would make OV happy. lol But everybody has moved on so it is a mute point.


So that probably means going with 4 Canadians on the offensive line. Deane is ok I guess at Guard. He will take a couple of holding penalties most games. Quite often seems to happen on a long pass completion though. Maybe Trestman's quick pass offense will help guys like Deane who can't hold their blocks very long. Legally that is.

I'm bothered by losing so much supposed National depth at LB more than anything else.

[stuntdog]

It would take a real rebel/iconoclast type owner & GM duo to push non-GOB behvaviour in the CFL IMHO- I'll let you know when I see it on the horizon (from my grave likely).

I think we’ve witnessed that a few times and they turned out to be more like gong shows than good football organizations. eg. Sherwood Schwarz & JI Albrecht in TO; Michael Feterik, Fred Fateri & Matt Dunigan in Calgary; the Gliebermans & JI Albrecht in Shreveport; Murray Pezim/Mark Gastineau/Brigitte Nielson & Joe Kapp in BC

[OV Argo]

I think we’ve witnessed that a few times and they turned out to be more like gong shows than good football organizations. eg. Sherwood Schwarz & JI Albrecht in TO; Michael Feterik, Fred Fateri & Matt Dunigan in Calgary; the Gliebermans & JI Albrecht in Shreveport; Murray Pezim/Mark Gastineau/Brigitte Nielson & Joe Kapp in BC

Those were more like rebel without a clue type football organizations, and yes, gong shows; not what I'm talking about.

[stuntdog]

Those were more like rebel without a clue type football organizations, and yes, gong shows; not what I'm talking about.

Perhaps the closest example of the type of owner you’re talking about is Bob Young. He certainly tried a different approach to the football operations structure in his first number of years as Ticats owner. It seemed like he wanted the team run by consensus rather than having a clear chain of command with the GM at the top. And he made non-GOB moves with Greg Marshall as HC straight out of the CIS ranks and later Rob Katz (a non-football guy) as GM. Fast forward to the Ticats current football ops structure and it’s clear that Young has learned from his mistakes, given up on reinventing the wheel, and embraced his inner GOB.

[OV Argo]

Perhaps the closest example of the type of owner you’re talking about is Bob Young. He certainly tried a different approach to the football operations structure in his first number of years as Ticats owner. It seemed like he wanted the team run by consensus rather than having a clear chain of command with the GM at the top. And he made non-GOB moves with Greg Marshall as HC straight out of the CIS ranks and later Rob Katz (a non-football guy) as GM. Fast forward to the Ticats current football ops structure and it’s clear that Young has learned from his mistakes, given up on reinventing the wheel, and embraced his inner GOB.

Marshall was working under veteran CFL GM Ron Lancaster - not like he was given carte blanche there.

And by non-GOB, I'm not talking anything about birth certificate. I'm talking about 2 main aspects: 1) roster thinking and attitude towards Canadian talent (always maximum number of imports on the roster; Canadians only get to compete for real playing time at mainly just 7 or maybe 8 pre-determined positions, and those are almost never QB or D-half, or whatever other position, depending on the team and year) ; 2) football strategy/style of offence - all teams run the same basic offence with QB always in shot-gun, basic 5 pack receiver set and heavy pass play selection (75 % + pass plays); no real applied ground game with variety in favor of one basic run play; little to no use anymore of the fullback or true tight end positions/formations.

SO - in order for a CFL team to break out of what I refer to as standard GOB procedure, they would (IMO) have to depart from both (or maybe even just one) of those 2 basic thinking ways. And if a team hired a brand new GM and coaching staff and even if they were all American, with no previous CFL/Canadian ball experience, and they departed from one or both of those standard operating procedures, they would qualify as non-GOB, in my eyes. Just like a CFL team could have a Canadian owner, Canadian GM and an all Canadian coaching staff, but if they continue to follow those 2 basic same old ways, they would still be GOB to me.

And Skippy Huard's 2000 Argos with his gimmicky double tight end set does NOT qualify in my books; there was no real applied ground game, the tight ends hardly had passes thrown to them, and it was still mostly pass offence; AND - same old roster attitude towards NIs with imports vastly favored for playing time.

[Wobbler]

Of (former) CFLers, Greg van Roten signed the richest NFL contract this year. Good luck to him - I bet that was an easy decision.

[OV Argo]

Of (former) CFLers, Greg van Roten signed the richest NFL contract this year. Good luck to him - I bet that was an easy decision.

Gee - I wonder if Scotty M being on the Jags coaching staff now and maybe vouching for Van Roten's talent had anything to do with this ?

[doubleblue]

Gee - I wonder if Scotty M being on the Jags coaching staff now and maybe vouching for Van Roten's talent had anything to do with this ?

That's what I was thinking. Van Roten would make a good back up at Center or Guard.

[argofan81]

The Argos are competing with Hamilton and Saskatchewan to sign J'Michael Deane.

@garylawless @sskroughriders @TorontoArgos @Ticats @CFL the riders must be close to going over the cap with all these signings.
— Michael Metzger (@doublemj72) March 8, 2017

We won! Signing announced today:

http://www.cfl.ca/2017/03/13/argos-s...michael-deane/