Bombers are a mess, sadly.

[Hambone]

With the events of the past 2 days the Bombers make the Argos' management structure look like a pillar of strength. The next two to three months are the most critical phase of the CFL offseason with Bowl game scouting, re-signing of pending free agents and upcoming free agency; not to mention preparation for the CFL Draft. Right now the Bomber organizational depth chart is without a President & CEO in Bauer and Head Coach and I presume effectively head of football operations in Kelly. There is nothing on the Bombers' website to show their football operations staff so it's tough to get a sense of what is left other than the assistant coaches. I heard Scott Taylor talking about it this morning indicating there was one person whose name escapes me still left in the football operations side outside of ACs.....and that guy was a close associate of Kelly which may make his tenure precarious. Normally you'd like to hire a GM who in turn can bring in his own coach. Ideally you'd first want to put in place a new President/CEO who can hire the GM. Sadly with time being such a factor they may be forced to hire the first warm bodies they can get their hands on instead of taking the more prudent, and slower, approach of getting the best possible candidates. This offseason could be a total writeoff for the Blue and Gold.

[Colin Unger]

If management is smart they'll promote John Murphy to GM and let him worry about bringing in a new head coach that will work well with all the players we have under contract and with the assistant coaches that we have under contract for next year.

Murphy did a wonderful job last year and is a real up and comer. He did such a good job of recruiting in the secondary that one of our rejects ended up starting in Calgary.  He was a breath of fresh air for the organization after coming over from Calgary.

Most Bomber fans are much more optimistic today than they were yesterday. They are happy to be rid of Bauer and Kelly.

[Colin Unger]

http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/kellymug.jpg

[Colin Unger]

The early rumor is that Tom Wright is the leading candidate to become the new President in Winnipeg. If that turns out to be true Bomber fans will be very pleased as he was always very well liked by Bomber fans during his time as league commish.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

The early rumor is that Tom Wright is the leading candidate to become the new President in Winnipeg. If that turns out to be true Bomber fans will be very pleased as he was always very well liked by Bomber fans during his time as league commish.

Rumour now quashed.  Wright has come out and stated that he's happy in his current job in Toronto and didn't even know that his name had been connected with speculation wrt the Bomber job.

A paper (can't recall, but might've been Penton with the Sun) talked about ex-player, Grant Carter, tossing his name in the mix, and of course, Taman has been public with his interest.  Beyond that though, if Hildahl is to be believed, they're still settling on a structure, so it would be pretty hard to know who you want before you know what you want them to do.  Fun to speculate and spitball ideas, but realistically, I don't believe that those making the decisions have gotten anywhere near a short list yet.

One of the regrets I have from when the Esks re-structured upon Hugh Campbell's retirement was not having two people filling the role... one for the business side and one for the football side.  IMO the Bombers would do well to split this up if they can afford to... presuming that they can attract the right candidates.

[Colin Unger]

The early rumor is that Tom Wright is the leading candidate to become the new President in Winnipeg. If that turns out to be true Bomber fans will be very pleased as he was always very well liked by Bomber fans during his time as league commish.

Rumour now quashed.  Wright has come out and stated that he's happy in his current job in Toronto and didn't even know that his name had been connected with speculation wrt the Bomber job.

A paper (can't recall, but might've been Penton with the Sun) talked about ex-player, Grant Carter, tossing his name in the mix, and of course, Taman has been public with his interest.  Beyond that though, if Hildahl is to be believed, they're still settling on a structure, so it would be pretty hard to know who you want before you know what you want them to do.  Fun to speculate and spitball ideas, but realistically, I don't believe that those making the decisions have gotten anywhere near a short list yet.

One of the regrets I have from when the Esks re-structured upon Hugh Campbell's retirement was not having two people filling the role... one for the business side and one for the football side.  IMO the Bombers would do well to split this up if they can afford to... presuming that they can attract the right candidates.

You're correct that rumor has been squashed and you're also correct that the Bombers management is just in the process of decided what positions the organization is going to have and what they would want out of those positions.

However.. Football operations are still being conducted as John Murphy signed three Canadian players on Friday.  If the Bombers are wise they will promote John to GM.  In his contract is states that nobody can work above him in football operations so to bring in an outsider to be GM they would risk losing the only guy who has a complete understanding of the players and coaches we have under contract so they'd risk being is a situation same as last year where they were rushed in evaluating players and ended up paying bonuses to some players who didn't even end up being on the football team.

I'm not here to say that the Bombers are not a mess right now but I don't think that saying that the team is a mess right now is provable. If Bauer and Kelly were good for the franchise then I would say the team was a mess for losing them but since many people felt that the team was better off without Bauer and Kelly I would imagine that they were view the Bombers as a team that is currently moving in the right direction.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

A move in the right direction is probably something that most would agree with, however, even if they retain Murphy to handle the football operations, the lack of stability and supporting cast around him heading into a pretty crucial time has to be troubling.

This may be an instance where currently being a mess and moving in the right direction are not mutually exclusive.  The key will be to not make a mis-step in their hiring, but to still move forward quite quickly, giving the football people all the time they can to prepare themselves for the key off-season times and the 2010 season.

As much as the off-season seems waaaaay too long for the fans, it's absolutely flying by for teams that are having to put in place infrastructure and direction.

[Colin Unger]

I wouldn't be surprised if it take until late January to early February for the new coach to be hired.

They will name hire a President and GM first... then a head coach.

One factor that may help the Bombers is that they only have a few free agents the most notable of which are Alexis Serna and Jovon Johnson.

They really don't need to target any players in free agency outside of the quarterback position where they might bring in a guy.

Another factor is that the Bombers special teams and defensive co-ordinators are both under contract for next season and the hope is that the new head coach will be compatible with Rick Cambell and Mark Nelson.  At this point I would be very surprised if the new head coach is Greg Marshall...  The bigger issue to me might be who the team hires as an offensive co-ordinator. Both Khari Jones and Dave Dickenson have been mentioned.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

I wouldn't be surprised if it take until late January to early February for the new coach to be hired.

They will name hire a President and GM first... then a head coach.

One factor that may help the Bombers is that they only have a few free agents the most notable of which are Alexis Serna and Jovon Johnson.

They really don't need to target any players in free agency outside of the quarterback position where they might bring in a guy.

Another factor is that the Bombers special teams and defensive co-ordinators are both under contract for next season and the hope is that the new head coach will be compatible with Rick Cambell and Mark Nelson.  At this point I would be very surprised if the new head coach is Greg Marshall...  The bigger issue to me might be who the team hires as an offensive co-ordinator. Both Khari Jones and Dave Dickenson have been mentioned.

A February HC start will present a lot of preparation challenges... not only with free agency and the draft, but US scouting.  I know that they have some people in place there, but if you're not yet set on the scheme or the philosophy (offence in particular), then you're trying to fit players into that scheme rather than recruiting players based on fit, style and need.  Bombers were somewhat handcuffed this past season due to contracts left from the previous years... might be behind the curve a bit in terms of preparation this year, even if they have some returning assistants.

Jovon Johnson will attract some interest, but I don't think that there is any risk of losing Serna.  Not a real attractive commodity for other teams to pursue, though he might fit in Wpg... or might not depending on the philosophy of the new coach.

It's hard to believe any mention of Dickenson or Jones would be credible at this point in time for the very reasons you mention... they'll bring in management, have him pick the HC, and the HC will pick the Coordinator.  While guys like LaPolice and Marshall have been public about their interest, any other names would likely fall under the category of pure speculation in terms of their being on the Bombers' radar.  The Bombers won't even have a radar until they put in place the management guy.