I have made no secret of my feelings on Burris coming and Glenn leaving, so it's obvious I don't agree with this trade. But instead of restating an argument I've already made, there are others reasons why I think this is not a good trade.
First, the Cats gave up too much. A straight-up Burris-for-Glenn swap would have been more palatable than dealing Glenn and Dewit. Handing Calgary a good, young, Canadian player – and one that filled in admirably for one of the best Centres in the CFL in Marwan Hage when the latter was lost for the season in September – is not the type of move a team that had ratio problems should make. Dewit proved in 2011 that he can play, and Hage is closer to the end than the beginning. Trading Dewit makes no sense.
The second problem is Hamilton will now have to pay Burris a lot more than it was paying Glenn. Why Hamilton didn't wait until Burris was eventually released – and we all know that Burris's days in Calgary were numbered, but that was solidified when Drew Tate signed a contract extension last week – and sign him at a much more financially sensible number? Rumours are that Burris makes somewhere between $400,000 to $450,000, which means Burris's salary will take up almost 1/10th of the league's $4.3-million salary cap per team. That's a huge chunk. Perhaps Burris has agreed to a pay cut, but he wasn't willing to do that for Calgary, so what are the chances he'd be willing to do it for Hamilton?
There seems to have been no rush to make this change. The team still doesn't have a Head Coach, so it's not like Burris will have a system to learn right away, so waiting another month (when Burris is owed a bonus by the Stamps that they were probably not going to pay) wouldn't have been a detriment. Making a move now seems unnecessary. Another 30 days wouldn't have hurt the team, and may have helped them by getting to negotiate a deal with Burris at a much more attractive number.
With a new Head Coach and Quarterback, the pressure will be on for Hamilton to win it all in 2012. Anything less than a Grey Cup championship will have to be viewed as a complete failure. These are the type of moves teams make to get them over the proverbial hump, so unless Burris and whomever the Head Coach is takes the Cats beyond the East Final, the moves, especially at Quarterback, will have been pointless. Burris, who will be 37 before the 2012 season starts, is not the long-term answer at Quarterback, so this is a win-now move.
Now we just have to wait for things to be made official, but it looks like Burris is headed to Steeltown.
I'm with you - the two QBs have had similar 2010-11s, we're likely taking on salary, and including Dewit is not smart. We'll have lost even more Canadian depth, and is Hage even going to be 100% ready to play by June-July? And if we lose Rottier, as many feel we will, Dewit could have easily been slotted in as starting guard.
ReplyDeleteWe have some younger draft picks in the pipeline, but we now have to go hard after some of the experienced free agents that may be available. Oline was an area we had to strengthen before this trade, and more so now.
The only reason for the rush might have been some other interested parties being in the mix. Winnipeg would be the prime one, but Tillman has done some off-the-wall things so perhaps he was considering Burris too? Even Saskatchewan, though I still think Durant has a bright future.
Glenn in his 3 years is .500.
ReplyDeleteBurris has a lot better career record. Did his career look like it fell off the rails last year? Yes.
I think Glenn and Burris are the same QB except that Burris knows how to run.
If the Cats are .500 or below, then you can say you were right. If the Cats win 10 games, it was the right move.
I personally like the move because it's something different. Something had to change. 2 big pieces have been moved (MB and KG).
Now we just need a coach. Although at this point, I would have prefered to keep MB. When the Argos waited too long to hire Andrus, no co-ordinators with CFL experience were available. Hopefully our new head coach can line up some co-ordinators quickly.