Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker Khalil Bass (47) before the Banjo Bowl game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, MB. Saturday, September 12, 2015. (PHOTO: JOHANY JUTRAS)
May 24, 2016
It was a factory, regularly spitting out linebacker talent like an assembly line year after year after year.
And if the last glory days of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, circa 1984-93, were built around a dominant defence, that dozen was in turn anchored by the men who played the linebacker position.
Three of them are now members of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame – Tyrone Jones, James West and Greg Battle – while Paul Randolph is part of the Blue Bomber shrine.
We point this out today as we begin the third installment of our training camp positional analysis series, because not only has it been years since the club had that kind hall of fame linebacker talent that dominated the 80’s and 90’s, it’s been a long stretch since they even just had some stability at the position.
That trend may finally be turning, as the crew assembled for 2016 camp not only features some familiar faces, but the pieces to potentially be critical in establishing a defensive backbone.
Khalil Bass is coming off a 2015 campaign in which he led the team in tackles with 102 – fifth-most in the CFL – and established a new club record for tackles by a rookie.
Maurice Leggett, the club’s top defender in 2014 as a safety, adapted quickly with a switch to outside linebacker after a season-ending injury to Chris Randle. He has the skillset to both mix it up at the line of scrimmage and drop back into pass coverage.
Sam Hurl, who started as a Canadian in the middle, is coming off a year in which he set a career-high 53 tackles and he’ll be pushed for that starting job after Ian Wild’s return from the Pittsburgh Steelers with six games to go last year.
The club could remain with a Canadian in the linebacking corps with Hurl and the depth behind him in Jesse Briggs, Teague Sherman, Garrett Waggoner, draft picks Shayne Gauthier and Frank Renaud, and John Rush, last year’s Presidents’ Trophy as the top defender in Canadian college ball.
But there are also a couple of intriguing imports who will further muddy the linebacker picture in Tony Burnett and Kyle Knox. Burnett, initially brought to the CFL by the B.C. Lions after playing at USC, dressed for seven games last year with the Bombers as a designated import and started to see spot duty with the defence as the season progressed.
Knox, meanwhile, appeared in 12 games with the New Orleans Saints in 2014 and has also seen time with Jacksonville and Dallas. Regardless of who wins the three starting jobs, expect the Bombers to use two of the four designated-import spots at the linebacker position, with kicker Justin Medlock and a kick return specialist owning the other two DI jobs.
There’s a belief in Bomber camp that changes made up front on the defensive line – adding tackles Euclid Cummings and Keith Shologan in free agency and looking for younger, bigger bodies to replace Bryant Turner, Jr. Zach Anderson and Greg Peach – might in turn also free up the linebackers to make more plays again.
Just as the likes of Jones, Battle, West & Co. once did.
TRAINING CAMP CENTRAL
THIS IS THE THIRD IN A POSITION-BY-POSITION TRAINING CAMP PREVIEW SERIES BY BLUEBOMBERS.COM
The rest of our camp previews are scheduled as follows:
Defensive line: May 25
Offensive line: May 26
Running backs: May 27
Receivers: May 28
Quarterbacks: May 29
