OT: Ottawa REDBLACKS 2018-2019

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Awesome news!! He played pretty well in Calgary when BLM went down.

 

[Larionov]

I'm mildly surprised, as I thought we might get Nichols from Winnipeg given Lapo's Bomber connections. Arbuckle's body of work is a bit limited, but he looked good starting in place of Bo Levi Mitchell in Calgary, and I trust Paul LaPolice to know the league personnel well and make the right pick. Kudos to the REDBLACKS for getting pro-active on this - without a QB you have nothing in the CFL, so spending a draft pick for an exclusive window to negotiate with your preferred guy is a smart call.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

I'm mildly surprised, as I thought we might get Nichols from Winnipeg given Lapo's Bomber connections. Arbuckle's body of work is a bit limited, but he looked good starting in place of Bo Levi Mitchell in Calgary, and I trust Paul LaPolice to know the league personnel well and make the right pick. Kudos to the REDBLACKS for getting pro-active on this - without a QB you have nothing in the CFL, so spending a draft pick for an exclusive window to negotiate with your preferred guy is a smart call.

I’m surprised, too. Expected LaPolice to have a huge input and choose someone he’s super familiar and comfortable with. But I’m super excited about Arbuckle

 

[Lonnie Loach]

Good move, but I wouldn't be surprised if he signed with Toronto -- his Calgary OC is the new head coach and I just figure that will be his first choice.

 

[Larionov]

Good move, but I wouldn't be surprised if he signed with Toronto -- his Calgary OC is the new head coach and I just figure that will be his first choice.

I wondered about that also, but you have to think that Ottawa at least had a sense as to whether Arbuckle was receptive to playing here before making the trade. I'd be awfully surprised if they made the trade cold...

 

[aragorn]

Now Ottawa will see the importance of having a good quarterback in the CFL, it's the most important position in this league.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Now Ottawa will see the importance of having a good quarterback in the CFL, it's the most important position in this league.

Ottawa knows the importance of having a good QB - hence why they traded for Henry Burris right away and let Kevin Glenn go.

Their problem was believing Davis/Jennings were good QBs (among other things)

 

[operasen]

Any news on the contract front. I'd think in the next week we should know something whether it will be possible. That Toronto connection is out there. What is Plan B?

 

[Larionov]

Plan B would be going after one of either Nichols or Collaros. Winnipeg can only afford to pay starter money to one of them, so the other would be pretty open to listening to Ottawa if starter money was on the table.

 

[OttawaSenators11]

I'm mildly surprised, as I thought we might get Nichols from Winnipeg given Lapo's Bomber connections. Arbuckle's body of work is a bit limited, but he looked good starting in place of Bo Levi Mitchell in Calgary, and I trust Paul LaPolice to know the league personnel well and make the right pick. Kudos to the REDBLACKS for getting pro-active on this - without a QB you have nothing in the CFL, so spending a draft pick for an exclusive window to negotiate with your preferred guy is a smart call.

About time Marcel did something good. Last year anyone with a brain would have known Davis and Jennings combo was going to fail from the start.

 

[OttawaSenators11]

Any news on the contract front. I'd think in the next week we should know something whether it will be possible. That Toronto connection is out there. What is Plan B?

My guess is he doesn't get signed he's apparently looking at $400K per year and if we don't sign him the Argos will for that money or close anyways.
I want Arbuckle signed dearly though if the deal gets done we'll have him during his prime .. Also beats having a 32-33 year-old QB in Nichols as our place holder for a couple years as Collaros will surely be re-signing in WPG from the sounds of it.

 

[OttawaSenators11]

Just to add, Nichols is far from terrible he's quite solid actually.. I'm just a big Arbuckle fan so not getting him signed will piss me off personally lol

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

I’m gonna be upset if we don’t get Arbuckle signed, too.

 

[Larionov]

For whatever reason, Desjardins might have been under the impression that he could get Arbuckle signed for an incentive laden deal. No chance of that happening - Arbuckle wants starter money (about 450k) in hard cash with no qualifiers. If he doesn't get it here, he'll wait a couple of weeks and likely get it from Toronto. That's the market for starting QBs in this league - if this GM can't figure it out, we need one who can...

 

[Fandlauer]

Jennings, Arndt and Madu released.

 

[Larionov]

Jennings is a complete mystery. He burst onto the CFL scene with a big season in BC in 2016, and it looked like the CFL's next young QB star had arrived. Then he struggled mightily in 2017 and 2018, battling through injuries, inconsistent play, and finally getting replaced as the starter again by Travis Lulay, who by that stage of his career was being held together with duct tape. He had a chance for a fresh start here in 2019, and I thought we might have been getting ourselves an undervalued stock. Yeah, not so much. He's done now...

 

[operasen]

Did not get a lot of warm fuzzies out of the visit last week. Wonder if Nichols is Plan B. Both would want to be No1. We keep our 1st in that case.
Not a fan of Davis either but Jennings, Arndt release cleared some space. Love to find another Clemons/Holloway duo. Those were interesting times.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Signed Arbuckle!

 

[JimmySpaetzle]

RedBlacks officially sign Nick Arbuckle. Huge News.

(Announced on their Facebook page, not sure if there’s a link to an article yet)

Edit: REDBLACKS sign Nick Arbuckle - CFL.ca

 

[Larionov]

Fun fact - in terms of salary and bonus, we are paying him about what Trevor Harris wanted last year, and that our GM wouldn't pay at the time. I guess Desjardins figured out, a year late, what the market for quality starting QBs is. The price doesn't go down either - in this league, you either have a guy or you are looking for a guy, and if you're looking for a guy you are in a world of hurt. Did we overpay for Arbuckle? Big time, but we had absolutely no choice but to do so. Now we have a guy, and we can start building a team around him. Can't wait for camp in May!

 

[DrEasy]

Fun fact - in terms of salary and bonus, we are paying him about what Trevor Harris wanted last year, and that our GM wouldn't pay at the time. I guess Desjardins figured out, a year late, what the market for quality starting QBs is. The price doesn't go down either - in this league, you either have a guy or you are looking for a guy, and if you're looking for a guy you are in a world of hurt. Did we overpay for Arbuckle? Big time, but we had absolutely no choice but to do so. Now we have a guy, and we can start building a team around him. Can't wait for camp in May!

Arbuckle up!

 

[salomonster]

Good on the RB's for going after the guy they wanted.

I think our Arbuckle is one of the league's up and emerging QB's.

 

[OttawaSenators11]

Nice to see they spent the money necessary to get Arbuckle signed on the dotted line!

Also Ward and Leone are back to control our kicking game!

I thought for sure Ward would have landed in the NFL, but apparently his kickoff power isn't good and held him back during his workouts.

 

[Larionov]

The problem Ward and Leone faced in the NFL is that NFL teams generally won't pay signing bonuses to kickers. Without a signing bonus, they would have no guarantees heading to an NFL camp, and they could be cut in mid-August with absolutely nothing but an apple and a road map. By then, the CFL season is half over. The only way it makes sense for a guy to leave the security of the (admittedly low paying) CFL for the NFL is if the NFL offers a signing bonus.

For instance, Chris Streveler of the Bombers just got 100k in a signing bonus from the Cardinals. That means that he will get a long look in camp for their backup role, and at worst lands on their practice roster.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

YOU BRING THE NOISE, WE’LL BRING THE FOOD

Come party with us in RHouse!

We’re turning Section H into a loud and rowdy section! RHouse is right on the goal line and we want you to cheer when we score and make noise to make life difficult for opposing teams.
We’re going to help you make as much noise as possible, everyone that joins us in RHouse will get their own noise maker!

To say thank you for being the loudest fans in The Stadium we’re going to hook you up with FREE food.
As a CFL fan you know how much noise can come into play during the game. It can pump our guys up and make life difficult for our opponents. So come party with us in RHouse, get rowdy and make some noise… we’re going to have a lot of fun this year.

RHouse passes are currently available for the entire season for only $499, each pass come with a noise maker and 10 food vouchers for each regular season home game and the preseason game*. Click here to get yours now or call 613-232-6767 Ext. 1 Ext. 1

PLUS by becoming a season seat member you will enter Forever RNation and gain access to tons of extra exclusive benefits.

You Bring the Noise, We'll Bring the Food - Ottawa REDBLACKS

Interesting idea, but a little out of the blue. TD Place is already pretty booming and we're known as one of the louder fanbases in the league.

I'm not really interested in food at the REDBLACKS games, though. It's sooo overpriced and meh. At least the Sens can get away with it because there's more selection, it's winter and there's no restaurants within walking distance. With the REDBLACKS, you can get a great meal that's only a short walk away for the same price as an overpriced chicken finger combo.