2024 Edmonton Elks

[cmbuk]

Coaches coach.. period

[bone]

I am hoping the new owner steps in and rights what I think is a mistake. Naming MBT as the starter is a mistake.

It's a mistake because it's short sighted on trying to keep their slim hopes at making the playoffs alive. I get the appeal to a degree, making the playoffs would be nice but it doesn't help you money wise because you won't host. I don't see it happening. But what are you doing for next season?

This team has to turn the corner as an organization. I don't see MBT as the answer at QB. He will be 37 yrs old. Has he been bad? No. If you look at his stats, they are pretty decent but he's not winning a lot of football games this year, they were 0-7 under him to start the year and I don't think he is the guy to win you a lot of football games next season. I still have big time questions about Ford but he has to play to answer those questions. Can he do the job. The only way to find out is to play him. Could starting him and have him go through ups and downs cost you the playoffs this year? Maybe but at least you'd know what you got in him. Ford needs to improve his passing to be successful. He has to learn to read defenses. I don't think he should stand back in the pocket and throw 40 times but you have to be able to throw and having him watch MBT doesn't help him get reps or learn to read defenses.

I get what Jackson and Geroy are doing. They are intern and potentially making the playoffs helps make their case. Going right down to the wire and battling for playoffs maybe helps their case. But they play the Bombers who are wanting to solidify first. I think beating them in the Peg will be extremely difficult and I am doubtful they will. Then they play Sask who's battling with them, they get a freebie in Calgary, then TO who is battling for a spot. They will be in tough and probably need to win most of their games to make the playoffs. So if they ride MBT, they play a bunch of close games, just to lose and not make the playoffs, forfeiting valuable reps for Ford, what did it get them? They missed the playoffs again, have a bad record, haven't developed Ford much and have questions again at QB for next season.

Vs you play Ford. He will have ups and downs for sure. I am not sure if he or MBT gives them the best chance to win most of their games. But at least he gets reps which maybe helps him be ready for next year OR you know what you have in him and have to look elsewhere.

If the new owner steps in and starts taking decisions out of the head coaches hands, this team is Michael Feterik era Stampeders level doomed.

Disagree with the decision all you want and if it ends up being wrong, Jackson will face the consequences at year end. But if your owner who has never once coached a pro level football game starts overrulling your coach, the team is doomed and will never ever be able to bring quality football people into the organization to run it.

I don't necessarily disagree with the rest of your post, but couldn't let that first part slide.

[Sectionq]

I am hoping the new owner steps in and rights what I think is a mistake. Naming MBT as the starter is a mistake.

It's a mistake because it's short sighted on trying to keep their slim hopes at making the playoffs alive. I get the appeal to a degree, making the playoffs would be nice but it doesn't help you money wise because you won't host. I don't see it happening. But what are you doing for next season?

This team has to turn the corner as an organization. I don't see MBT as the answer at QB. He will be 37 yrs old. Has he been bad? No. If you look at his stats, they are pretty decent but he's not winning a lot of football games this year, they were 0-7 under him to start the year and I don't think he is the guy to win you a lot of football games next season. I still have big time questions about Ford but he has to play to answer those questions. Can he do the job. The only way to find out is to play him. Could starting him and have him go through ups and downs cost you the playoffs this year? Maybe but at least you'd know what you got in him. Ford needs to improve his passing to be successful. He has to learn to read defenses. I don't think he should stand back in the pocket and throw 40 times but you have to be able to throw and having him watch MBT doesn't help him get reps or learn to read defenses.

I get what Jackson and Geroy are doing. They are intern and potentially making the playoffs helps make their case. Going right down to the wire and battling for playoffs maybe helps their case. But they play the Bombers who are wanting to solidify first. I think beating them in the Peg will be extremely difficult and I am doubtful they will. Then they play Sask who's battling with them, they get a freebie in Calgary, then TO who is battling for a spot. They will be in tough and probably need to win most of their games to make the playoffs. So if they ride MBT, they play a bunch of close games, just to lose and not make the playoffs, forfeiting valuable reps for Ford, what did it get them? They missed the playoffs again, have a bad record, haven't developed Ford much and have questions again at QB for next season.

Vs you play Ford. He will have ups and downs for sure. I am not sure if he or MBT gives them the best chance to win most of their games. But at least he gets reps which maybe helps him be ready for next year OR you know what you have in him and have to look elsewhere.

[Looner]

I am happy they are where they are now but I think it took longer than it should have.

I think we can all agree with this statement

[Sectionq]

I explain the 33 losses as a product of his HCing and his work as a defensive coordinator and his stubbornness in sticking with his buddy as an OC for far too long before turning to Jarious Jackson. His first year he was throwing a lot of spaghetti against the wall but since then he was more meticulous in his changes. How do you explain the team he built this year losing for the first 7 games when he was the HC and now going gang busters with Jackson and Shivers in charge of the coaching. Geroy Simon hasn't made that many changes since he left. I think i make a valid point. We can agree to disagree.

We will have to disagree.

With the amount of good football players from the US available every year, either fresh out of college, sitting on a NFL practice roster, playing in those other leagues or unemployed looking for opportunities. IMO you should be able to turn a team around fairly quickly in the CFL if your GM is doing a good job at scouting and recruiting or new players, making trades and free agent signings from other CFL teams.

I think where the Elks are at now, is where they should have been last year if the GM was doing a better job at finding players, regardless if he is stubborn or not. I am happy they are where they are now but I think it took longer than it should have.

[adb]

I often wonder how his tenure would have turned out if he had won the Masoli sweepstakes when he first took over. IMO the biggest issue with his time here was how he dealt with the QBs and his stubbornness for making this team "his team". He moved on from some good players cause he didn't bring them in.

That being said, you are not wrong either, the team the last few years has obviously been terrible for more reasons then one or two, I'm just glad it seems like we are done with that point in our history.

He seems to find a lot of good players on the defensive side of the ball. Not so much on the offensive side especially with quarterbacks. He has made bad decisions with his quarterbacks over the years. Ed Hervey deserves full credit when he brought in Mike Reilly and was a huge reason CJ won the title as a HC in spite of his lousy OC at the time.

[adb]

Jones record as Edmonton's GM was 8-33.

I understand and agree with the comment he was stubborn but for don't lose 33 games in 2.5 yrs just because you have a stubborn GM/HC. They lost all those games because they weren't good enough talent wise. So if Jones did such a great job at recruiting players, explain the 33 losses?

I explain the 33 losses as a product of his HCing and his work as a defensive coordinator and his stubbornness in sticking with his buddy as an OC for far too long before turning to Jarious Jackson. His first year he was throwing a lot of spaghetti against the wall but since then he was more meticulous in his changes. How do you explain the team he built this year losing for the first 7 games when he was the HC and now going gang busters with Jackson and Shivers in charge of the coaching. Geroy Simon hasn't made that many changes since he left. I think i make a valid point. We can agree to disagree.

[bone]

I often wonder how his tenure would have turned out if he had won the Masoli sweepstakes when he first took over. IMO the biggest issue with his time here was how he dealt with the QBs and his stubbornness for making this team "his team". He moved on from some good players cause he didn't bring them in.

That being said, you are not wrong either, the team the last few years has obviously been terrible for more reasons then one or two, I'm just glad it seems like we are done with that point in our history.

Masoli started 5 games and finished only 3 during the entire time that Jones was GM and coach here. Now maybe those injuries don't happen if he's playing it Edmonton, but it's not like the O line was a strength, so I'm not that confident those injuries (or similar) wouldn't still have happened here.

[Looner]

NEVER EVER pass on VAJ when its available

preach brother

[Looner]

If you want to make the case that for just this season, and when you take into account the improvement after he left, when Jones went 0-5, a lot of that was stubbornness, I can buy that. They lost most of their games by not a lot this year, so a play here or there could have won them some games. So if Jones wasn't so stubborn, either in play calling, player utilization or starting a different guy, maybe those couple of plays that lost them some of their games, don't happen and they win a few of them. I can give you that.

But I can't give you the previous 2 seasons. The previous 2 seasons, they lost 28 times. There were a bunch of blow out losses, they got shut out twice including once at home. So IMO when things are that bad, stubbornness isn't the only cause. To get blown out in a lot of games or shut out twice in a year, that says to me you are flat out not good enough as a football team. The other team man for man was better than you for those things to happen as often as it did in the previous seasons. My comment didn't say he can't find any players, my comment was about him not able to find enough to make his football team competitive. IMO, when there are 1000's of good football players in the US available every single year, it shouldn't take a team pushing 3 seasons to finally become remotely competitive.

I often wonder how his tenure would have turned out if he had won the Masoli sweepstakes when he first took over. IMO the biggest issue with his time here was how he dealt with the QBs and his stubbornness for making this team "his team". He moved on from some good players cause he didn't bring them in.

That being said, you are not wrong either, the team the last few years has obviously been terrible for more reasons then one or two, I'm just glad it seems like we are done with that point in our history.

[Esks4ever]

passing up on Fajardo and VAJ when available.

NEVER EVER pass on VAJ when its available

[Esks4ever]

If you want to make the case that for just this season, and when you take into account the improvement after he left, when Jones went 0-5, a lot of that was stubbornness, I can buy that. They lost most of their games by not a lot this year, so a play here or there could have won them some games. So if Jones wasn't so stubborn, either in play calling, player utilization or starting a different guy, maybe those couple of plays that lost them some of their games, don't happen and they win a few of them. I can give you that.

But I can't give you the previous 2 seasons. The previous 2 seasons, they lost 28 times. There were a bunch of blow out losses, they got shut out twice including once at home. So IMO when things are that bad, stubbornness isn't the only cause. To get blown out in a lot of games or shut out twice in a year, that says to me you are flat out not good enough as a football team. The other team man for man was better than you for those things to happen as often as it did in the previous seasons. My comment didn't say he can't find any players, my comment was about him not able to find enough to make his football team competitive. IMO, when there are 1000's of good football players in the US available every single year, it shouldn't take a team pushing 3 seasons to finally become remotely competitive.

Or, he had them playing so uptight and wound up knowing if they screw up chances are they are gone. Jones departs and the same players are playing loose, having fun and playing good.


How many blown 2nd and longs that the D would blow when Jones was around? lots? It still happens a bit now but no wheres around the amount it was happening. I'm a firm believer that he was too strict which resulted the players playing too scared to make a mistake, and tight/wound up.

[Sectionq]

If he completely sucks at recruiting explain winning 4 of the last 5? I think the majority of his losses come from being a stubborn coach. Not starting guys that should be starters (Ford), sticking with guys too long (Cornelius) and thinking he's smarter then everyone and passing up on Fajardo and VAJ when available.

If you want to make the case that for just this season, and when you take into account the improvement after he left, when Jones went 0-5, a lot of that was stubbornness, I can buy that. They lost most of their games by not a lot this year, so a play here or there could have won them some games. So if Jones wasn't so stubborn, either in play calling, player utilization or starting a different guy, maybe those couple of plays that lost them some of their games, don't happen and they win a few of them. I can give you that.

But I can't give you the previous 2 seasons. The previous 2 seasons, they lost 28 times. There were a bunch of blow out losses, they got shut out twice including once at home. So IMO when things are that bad, stubbornness isn't the only cause. To get blown out in a lot of games or shut out twice in a year, that says to me you are flat out not good enough as a football team. The other team man for man was better than you for those things to happen as often as it did in the previous seasons. My comment didn't say he can't find any players, my comment was about him not able to find enough to make his football team competitive. IMO, when there are 1000's of good football players in the US available every single year, it shouldn't take a team pushing 3 seasons to finally become remotely competitive.

[Looner]

Jones record as Edmonton's GM was 8-33.

I understand and agree with the comment he was stubborn but for don't lose 33 games in 2.5 yrs just because you have a stubborn GM/HC. They lost all those games because they weren't good enough talent wise. So if Jones did such a great job at recruiting players, explain the 33 losses?

If he completely sucks at recruiting explain winning 4 of the last 5? I think the majority of his losses come from being a stubborn coach. Not starting guys that should be starters (Ford), sticking with guys too long (Cornelius) and thinking he's smarter then everyone and passing up on Fajardo and VAJ when available.

[Sectionq]

Whenever I hear any of the new American players brought in from the US college system being interviewed and they are invariably asked the question how did you end up with the EE they always mention CJ as being the reason they are up here. I heard Willie Jefferson say the same thing in an interview when asked about how he wound up in the CFL. He didn't mention EH he mentioned CJ. Im sure that EH finds his share of guys but so does CJ. The one thing you can say is that he puts in the work to find new players and that is where his strength lies. Not so much FA signings or Canadian players but raw cheap US players that turn into starters. I heard Morley Scott mention recently that the new coaching staff without CJ had eased off a bit on the players and that they were now playing much more relaxed. I'm sure Jones was pretty intense as he was coaching with an axe over his head. I think if he would have given up his HC/DC duties at the beginning of the season and just been the GM that he still might be here but I agree with you he is a bit of a control freak and that may always end up being his downfall going forward.

Jones record as Edmonton's GM was 8-33.

I understand and agree with the comment he was stubborn but for don't lose 33 games in 2.5 yrs just because you have a stubborn GM/HC. They lost all those games because they weren't good enough talent wise. So if Jones did such a great job at recruiting players, explain the 33 losses?