Who are the Best National Free Agents?

[jerrym]

With Canadian content so often determining a CFL team's success, no matter how many American stars it has (see the Argos of much of the 1950s and 60s for what happens when its Canadian content was weak) , picking up National free agents can be critical to a team's success. CFL.ca has ranked the top 10 National free agents, including Argos Laing (#4) and Gabriel (#9).
The top Nationals in order were Andrew Harris, Ted Laurent, Justin Capicciotti, Cleyon Laing, Courtney Stephen, Josh Bourke, Jerome Messam, Corey Watman, Jermaine Gabriel, and Chris Getzlaf.
Do you agree with this listing?
Are there other Nationals who should make the top ten?
Should the Argos just try to go after their own free agents, focus on their Nationals, or try to sign some other teams' National or International free agents?


In what’s shaping up to be one of the deepest free agent classes in recent memory, a Canadian passport can go a long way in spiking a player’s value.
Five of the top six players on CFL.ca’s top 30 free agents list (http://www.cfl.ca/2016/01/26/cfl-ca-top-30-free-agents/) are nationals while, no coincidence, more than a third of the players on the list in total are from Canada.
It’s understood that Canadian content is key to building a team geared towards long-term success, and with an abundance of national talent in this free agent class it’s obvious that all eyes will be on the potential ratio-breakers.



http://www.cfl.ca/2016/01/29/canadian-content-national-free-agents-worth-watching/

[paulwoods13]

Pretty sure there's a thread on this already?

[Wobbler]

I don't see anything inherently wrong with a parallel thread specifically discussing nationals.

[OV Argo]

You could field a pretty strong team if you able to sign whoever you wanted out of that list of national FAs, let alone all the FAs available this year - lots of good players.

That's a pretty good top 10 IMO; but Watman should not be on it, and Bourke would be more like #1 but I guess gets rated lower cause he is getting on in years/mileage ?


Not sure I buy the oft repeated "Canadian content is so key to CFL success" refrain though - bit of a bloated CFL cliche IMO - when you now only need 7 of 24 starters on offence & defence to be NIs. Smart teams will find good players from both the national & international talent pools. But if you put as much or more focus on 17 of 24 starter positions, rather than 7, wouldn't that give you better odds of having more talent? Might be a different story if the 7 were always the QB, the tailback, the MLB, a corner, a DE and the 2 OTs.

[R.J]

Harris too high, Bourke too low and surprised to see Watman and Getzlaf on the list.
My top 10 would be :
Capicciotti
Bourke
Laurent
Harris
Gabriel
Shologan
Laing
Messam
Chambers
Stephen

Honorable mentions to Hajrullahu, Bulcke and Greenwood. Greenwood would be in my top 5 and Bulcke top 10 solely based on talent, but injuries lead me to take them out. Hajrullahu, I still think has a lot of potential and talent, just has to find his game again.

[paulwoods13]

Harris too high, Bourke too low and surprised to see Watman and Getzlaf on the list.
My top 10 would be :
Capicciotti
Bourke
Laurent
Harris
Gabriel
Shologan
Laing
Messam
Chambers
Stephen

Honorable mentions to Hajrullahu, Bulcke and Greenwood. Greenwood would be in my top 5 and Bulcke top 10 solely based on talent, but injuries lead me to take them out. Hajrullahu, I still think has a lot of potential and talent, just has to find his game again.

I agree with most of this except I'd switch Chambers and Messam. Not a huge fan of Stephen but he definitely has some value.

[doubleblue]

I would love to see Barker be able to sign Bourke and Laurent, but I highly doubt that will happen, so I hope he can resign Gabriel and Laing. I think Gabriel will resign once he finds out his value on the open market. Laing I'm not so sure. He keeps making noises about the NFL. I think he is too light for a DT down there, so would have to be a DE. Maybe he gets a shot. I would be more worried about Jones getting him to sign with Saskatchewan. They have cleared some big cap space for some reason and Jones is a great recruitor.

[jerrym]

Justin Dunk gives his opinion in the video below on which Nationals could add value to a team without costing a lot because they have not reached their potential yet or have had injuries. It includes the Argo's Adjei.



http://www.cfl.ca/2016/02/07/value-picks-nationals-to-eye-during-free-agency/