Before the year ends I have to thank Jim and Scott

[paulwoods13]

This forum and Twitter were full of "that trade sets the Argos back years." And look what happened. One year later -- the shortest possible span -- the team is champions and has lots of depth across the lineup, including young NATs. So clearly the trade did not set the Argos back any more than a few games, if that. (I'm well known to believe that going with Lefevour would not have been any better than going with Willy, but even if he did eke out a few more wins down the stretch, does anyone think we would have won anything of consequence in 2016 if that trade had not been made? It would sure be a stretch for all those who dump on Milanovich to suggest we might not have "blown the season" if only we had kept Heath and stayed away from Willy.)

As for dumping the Big Three not curing cancer, maybe so. But the fact is, our locker room was the exact opposite of cancer-ridden in 2017, and IMO a big part of that is we didn't have those guys in it. Call it desperation or whatever you want to call it, but IMO it is impossible to make a valid case we would have been better off in 2016 or 2017 of they had not been cut.

[OV Argo]

IF the Argos had kept Barker & Millanovich around last year, and they had Drew Willy as their pencilled-in QB, and no SJ Green or Armanti Edwards in the receiving corps - my guess is they would have went 1 & 17 or possibly 0 & 18.

[Neely2005]

IF the Argos had kept Barker & Millanovich around last year, and they had Drew Willy as their pencilled-in QB, and no SJ Green or Armanti Edwards in the receiving corps - my guess is they would have went 1 & 17 or possibly 0 & 18.

The scary thing is they wanted Willy to be our starter in 2017.

[ArgoGabe22]

The scary thing is they wanted Willy to be our starter in 2017.

I don’t believe that for a second and I’m not really sure this was ever publicly said.

[AngeloV]

The scary thing is they wanted Willy to be our starter in 2017.

They had to say that. A team needs to show confidence in all their players publicly. None of us know what the real feelings were.

[argolio]

This forum and Twitter were full of "that trade sets the Argos back years." And look what happened. One year later -- the shortest possible span -- the team is champions and has lots of depth across the lineup, including young NATs. So clearly the trade did not set the Argos back any more than a few games, if that. (I'm well known to believe that going with Lefevour would not have been any better than going with Willy, but even if he did eke out a few more wins down the stretch, does anyone think we would have won anything of consequence in 2016 if that trade had not been made? It would sure be a stretch for all those who dump on Milanovich to suggest we might not have "blown the season" if only we had kept Heath and stayed away from Willy.)

As for dumping the Big Three not curing cancer, maybe so. But the fact is, our locker room was the exact opposite of cancer-ridden in 2017, and IMO a big part of that is we didn't have those guys in it. Call it desperation or whatever you want to call it, but IMO it is impossible to make a valid case we would have been better off in 2016 or 2017 of they had not been cut.

Well said. It wasn't "set back the team years.....unless they hire Popp and Trestman." There was no qualifier. It was all-out the sky is falling.

And I don't see anyone here defending the Willy trade. It wasn't a good trade. Just not a fatal one long-term.

The scary thing is they wanted Willy to be our starter in 2017.

Obviously we'll never know now, but I think a healthy Ray would have won the job.