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There are a couple unofficial events that always signal the beginning of winter.
The first time I can see my breath, the first time I see snow (insert tanks in Toronto joke here) and the first time I see the winning team lift the Grey Cup.
As someone who hates the cold, but loves our great game, winter is really not my favourite time of the year. The 2014 season feels ages away and I hate getting salt stains on my shoes.
Thankfully this off-season should be filled with more than enough storylines to keep my mind off the fact I’m too stupid to buy a proper winter jacket. So with that in mind here are four off-season issues to keep an eye on.
Let’s get one out of the way quickly: The CBA negotiations.
Between their new lucrative TV deal with TSN, and new stadiums in Winnipeg and Hamilton the league hasn’t been stronger. Naturally the players want a larger slice of the pie, and really who can blame them when you look at how much the league has grown since the last CBA deal was signed back in June 2010?
As we have seen in other professional leagues, when a new CBA needs to be ratified there is always a sense of foreboding as we start hearing that both sides are “digging in” for a protracted war and the term “war chest” starts getting throw around.
The interesting thing is we have never really experienced all that sort of sabre rattling and gloomy rhetoric in the CFL. The 2010 deal was signed without a ton of fanfare; I don’t remember even a single dark cloud leading up to it. Here’s hoping that Mark Cohon and CFLPA President Mike Morreale can come up with an equitable deal for both sides.
All right we’ve got the yucky vegetables out of the way lets move on to the meat of the off-season starting with Ottawa.
The arrival of the REDBLACKS (no I am not yelling at you) is an absolute game changer for this off-season. The expansion draft is going to make the next three weeks really awkward for all eight teams.
Each club can protect one quarterback, 10 imports and six non-imports. After Ottawa makes their picks, teams have to choose an additional six non-imports, which means there are going to be 23 players on each team with bruised egos. Take that feeling of being selected last for a game of pick up and multiply that by a 1000, that is how the players not protected will feel.
I’m wildly curious to see not only who they pick up but which teams will be hurt most by the upcoming Expansion Draft. Teams have to deal with roster turnover every year, just a fact of life, but this year is just going to be crazy.
This next one may be a bit of a hipster pick but the rebuild in Winnipeg will be a fascinating one. The question of who will be the General Manager was answered with the announcement that Kyle Walters has officially been given the job. Next up for Winnipeg will be to find a new coach and more importantly, who they find to stabilize their QB position.
They lost out to Edmonton on the Chris Jones sweepstakes, but there are still plenty of quality coaching candidates out there including Khari Jones and Mike O’Shea. The search for a quarterback dwarfs all other needs, however.
Out of all the eyebrow-raising offensive statistics that Winnipeg posted, the most damning number was 13. That was the number of touchdown passes the Blue Bombers managed to produce in 2013.
What makes that number even worse is when you factor in that the next lowest on this list more than doubled Winnipeg’s efforts! That would be Montreal who also dealt with a merry go round of quarterbacks but still managed to record 27 touchdowns through the air. Hey, it’s bad enough to be last in this category it’s far, far worse when the margin between you and the next worst team is larger than the percentage of Roughrider fans to Tiger-Cat fans at the Grey Cup.
There is a reason you keep hearing Zack Collaros’ name being bandied around in Winnipeg. This is a team that needs to put a product on the field that is as impressive as their stadium.
Finally there is the issue of the Calgary Stampeders and their treasure trove of quarterbacks, all of whom are under contract for next season. This situation feels like the ‘Dating Game’.
Bachelor Number One is as classy as it gets. He’s been in the league for 13 years, has almost 40,000 passing yards and has no idea about his future. While he’s no longer a spring chicken at 34 and has yet to prove he can carry a team on his back, he’s a steady veteran who knows how to get the job done.
Ladies put your hands together for Kevin Glenn!
Bachelor Number Two has been groomed as the heir apparent for the past couple seasons except he just keeps getting injured. Speaking of grooming can we please get this man a haircut? We’ve seen him preform at all star levels but can be really be trusted to start 18 games?
Ladies meet Drew Tate!
Bachelor Number Three is our young up and comer who was born the same year that ‘Dances with Wolves’ and ‘Back to the Future Part III’ came out. He burst onto the scene in a Week 5 win over Winnipeg that saw him throw for 376 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Henry Burris once compared him to Jeff Garcia and Nik Lewis raved about his “huge upside”.
Ladies give it up for Bo Levi Mitchell!
No matter what Calgary ends up doing it will be a big story and will have league wide ramifications for both the short and long term. Bring on the Expansion Draft and let’s get this winter thing over as quick as possible.
