2021 CFL free agency

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B.C.FAN
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Hambone wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 2:38 pm
If I was a betting man I'd wager Arndt gets signed ahead of Kraemer to give a vet presence behind Reilly. Barring injury and assuming we do get a season Reilly, Arndt and Rourke would break camp with the team.
That's a pretty safe bet. Rourke is considered the future and Arndt is the only veteran backup on the roster. His 165 career CFL pass attempts are 163 more than all the remaining backup QBs on the roster combined. At best, Kraemer and the others will be camp arms who might stick around if someone ahead of them gets hurt.
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:18 am
With Rick Campbell serving as defensive coordinator in addition to head coach and co-GM
Campbell hasn't been a defensive coordinator since he left Calgary. This just seems like an overly optimistic plan to me. Would be curious as to the terms of Campbells contract.

Predicting the Lions to be spenders in FA. Could see Derel Walker being on the list.
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Hambone
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 4:14 pm
Hambone wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 2:38 pm
If I was a betting man I'd wager Arndt gets signed ahead of Kraemer to give a vet presence behind Reilly. Barring injury and assuming we do get a season Reilly, Arndt and Rourke would break camp with the team.
That's a pretty safe bet. Rourke is considered the future and Arndt is the only veteran backup on the roster. His 165 career CFL pass attempts are 163 more than all the remaining backup QBs on the roster combined. At best, Kraemer and the others will be camp arms who might stick around if someone ahead of them gets hurt.
And the length of camp will dictate the number of arms. It's too early to tell what conditions the next camp will operate under but suffice it to say the shorter the camp the fewer the number of QBs will be. BC had something like 7 under contract when things were kiboshed last year. I would have expected 2 of them never would have seen a sunrise at TRU under normal circumstances. If camps get shortened to something like 12 days then absolute priority 1, 2 and 3 would be to prepare for the season opener. With Reilly and Rourke locked in I'd only bring 4 max to camp.
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Hambone
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Murdoch wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 5:41 pm
B.C.FAN wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:18 am
With Rick Campbell serving as defensive coordinator in addition to head coach and co-GM
Campbell hasn't been a defensive coordinator since he left Calgary. This just seems like an overly optimistic plan to me. Would be curious as to the terms of Campbells contract.

Predicting the Lions to be spenders in FA. Could see Derel Walker being on the list.
Normally I don't like that much multi-tasking in my HC. Where I really don't like it is when it's a first time HC who decides to be his own coordinator. Campbell is not a first time HC. We also don't know if he totally stood in the background relative to the DC in Ottawa or if he was heavily involved in game planning. As for GM we do know McEvoy has been taking care or many of those duties for several years. I think Campbell's GM workload will be heavy in winter and spring when it's time to build the roster for TC and coaching duties are much lighter. Once the training camp starts the coaching demands will kick in big time but at the same time GM demands will drop off to where Neil, Ryan and Geroy should be able to take care of everything
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TSN's Dave Naylor reported several months ago that the CFL operations cap will be slashed by 20% next year to $2 million per team. By not hiring a dedicated GM and by employing just 9 coaches, one less than they had planned last year and two less than allowed, the Lions are well on their way to meeting the reduced cap.

And with teams reportedly being urged to spend to the salary cap floor rather than the ceiling, renegotiation of Mike Reilly's contract is essential to allow the team to retain its own priority free agents and perhaps add a few new ones.
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Murdoch wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 5:41 pm
Predicting the Lions to be spenders in FA. Could see Derel Walker being on the list.
I don't believe they will be if the number of (comparatively cheaper) US FAs the club has signed lately is any indication.


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B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:49 pm
And with teams reportedly being urged to spend to the salary cap floor rather than the ceiling


Sounds like collusion on a broad scale and unlikely imo to attract more fans unless there is a plan to reduce the ticket prices along with the player salaries.

I can see Winnipeg using the soccer team payroll to circumvent any limits on team operational expenses which brings us to the question of why make rules when everyone ignores them.

Number one for me is to have them honor the deals they make for the players as they do for coaches and management. One year deals limit the team identity needed to successfully market the product.
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Murdoch wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 5:10 am
B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:49 pm
And with teams reportedly being urged to spend to the salary cap floor rather than the ceiling


Sounds like collusion on a broad scale and unlikely imo to attract more fans unless there is a plan to reduce the ticket prices along with the player salaries.

I can see Winnipeg using the soccer team payroll to circumvent any limits on team operational expenses which brings us to the question of why make rules when everyone ignores them.

Number one for me is to have them honor the deals they make for the players as they do for coaches and management. One year deals limit the team identity needed to successfully market the product.


Lol. How would Winnipeg use the soccer team to stash money when the CPL also has to operate under a cap system with a rumoured max team cap of $750k (roughly the equivalent of Mike Reilly's annual salary).
Last edited by Hambone on Fri Dec 11, 2020 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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B.C.FAN
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I'm not a lawyer but the current CBA negotiated by the players and league in 2019 establishes the minimum member club players' salary as $4.75 million for 2021. It should be perfectly legal for teams to hold the line on salaries as long as they're above that cap floor.

Now, if teams have conspired to hold the line on salary costs by not signing each other's free agents, that's another matter.
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:49 pm
And with teams reportedly being urged to spend to the salary cap floor rather than the ceiling


On that topic one thing that has me curious is how close do teams really operate to the cap ceiling? We only ever hear about a team occasionally going over but never know where the rest wind up. Are they all within like $1000 of the ceiling or do some still have quite a bit of room left when the season ends? We do assume that when teams start the season they do budget a certain amount of money to give them wiggle room to cover future injuries and other needs. They often have money left over in the piggy bank after the season is done that is leveraged to extend players for the following season by using some of that excess to be used for signing bonuses. It all leaves me wondering if teams don't typically start out a lot closer to the floor than we think.
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B.C.FAN
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Hambone wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 12:35 pm
B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:49 pm
And with teams reportedly being urged to spend to the salary cap floor rather than the ceiling


On that topic one thing that has me curious is how close do teams really operate to the cap ceiling? We only ever hear about a team occasionally going over but never know where the rest wind up. Are they all within like $1000 of the ceiling or do some still have quite a bit of room left when the season ends? We do assume that when teams start the season they do budget a certain amount of money to give them wiggle room to cover future injuries and other needs. They often have money left over in the piggy bank after the season is done that is leveraged to extend players for the following season by using some of that excess to be used for signing bonuses. It all leaves me wondering if teams don't typically start out a lot closer to the floor than we think.

Yes, and there are also teams that stash as many as 13 players on the 6-game injured list at full salary but exempt from the cap.
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Yes, and there are also teams that stash as many as 13 players on the 6-game injured list at full salary but exempt from the cap.
One of Wally's flaws was that he stubbornly stuck to the spirit of the SMS. While other GMs were openly flaunting the rules 6 gaming healthy players, and in many cases (hello Chris Jones) getting them into practice sessions, Buono would only put them on the 6G if they were hurt bad enough to warrant it. Only exception I recall him making might have been with a backup kicker.
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If they pay Lamar Durant $200,000 as per looney cap, what do they need to pay Burnham to keep him happy?
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There is a reasonably good chance that Sergio Castillo finds his way back to the Den. While he may stick around waiting for another NFL call, the chances of him staying with the New York Jets took a huge hit with 3 consecutive demoralizing field goal misses in yesterday's 40-3 blowout loss to Seattle.

Castillo missed wide from 37, 41 and 43 yards on three consecutive fist-half drives that killed the Jets' momentum and likely led to the hapless cellar-dwellers collapsing. With Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams fired last week for a boneheaded final drive blitz call, I would not be surprised to see our former P/K scapegoated this week if kicker Sam Ficken (groin) is ready to return Sunday.


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In addition to players who will become
free agents in February, there are some high-profile free agents who were unsigned in 2020 and can now be signed by any team. The list includes receivers Bralon Addison, Derel Walker and Bryant
Mitchell. If any of these players get signed, we might get a good idea of the 2021 free-agent market.

https://3downnation.com/2020/12/14/seve ... right-now/
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