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May 23, 2017

Positional Preview: Linebackers

It was one of those offseason decisions that left some across the Canadian Football League looking at the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and asking two questions:

What the…?

Why the…?

The Bombers opted this winter not to sign linebacker Khalil Bass, letting him hit the free agent market in February before he landed with the Grey Cup champion Ottawa REDBLACKS.

At first glance, it’s a move that takes a significant playmaker out of the defensive front seven, as Bass registered 82 tackles last year – tops on the club – while adding two interceptions, four sacks, two fumble recoveries, four forced fumbles and one tackle for loss working out of the middle linebacker spot.

Two years ago, playing the weak side spot, Bass piled up 99 tackles, five sacks, one interception and a forced fumble.

To sum up, then, that’s a pile of production that is now absent from the defensive huddle.

A few key factors went into the decision and we’ll explore them in the third installment of our pre-training camp positional preview series, focusing today on the linebacking corps.

First, keeping the core of a playoff squad intact is never an easy task under the salary cap, and Bass, given his two years as a Bomber, might have been the indirect victim of the new deals given to Matt Nichols, Darvin Adams, and Clarence Denmark this offseason as well as the addition of new veteran defensive pieces like Tristan Okpalaugo and Drave Nevis.

Second, the Bombers felt Bass was a better fit at the weak side spot held by Ian Wild and were looking for more of a run-stopping ‘thumper’ to patrol the middle of their linebacking corps. And, to that end, management is very intrigued as to what returnees Kyle Knox and Nick Temple might bring to the middle after a year learning the three-down game, and was impressed by the work of newcomers George Stone and Kyrie Wilson during April’s rookie camp.

All of this means the battle for the middle linebacking spot is wide open when main camp starts on Sunday, with the club’s brass crossing their fingers one of a handful of legit candidates steps up to replace the void left by Bass.

What the Bombers have across the rest of the linebacking depth chart is solid. There is Wild, who is back for a fifth season with the Bombers and managed 70 tackles, two sacks, an interception and a forced fumble in 12 games a year ago. That might be the main concern for the 27-year-old, who missed a third of the 2016 season with injury and also missed time in his other two full seasons with Winnipeg, in 2013 and 2014.

Maurice Leggett, meanwhile, is most productive when he plays with a chip on his shoulder and a snarl on his face and he should have both when the ball is placed on the tee for the Bombers’ season opener July 1st in Regina. Leggett’s 2016 numbers, after all, were exemplary as he tied for the league lead in interceptions with seven – three of which were returned for touchdowns – added 51 tackles, two fumble recoveries, a sack and a forced fumble en route to being named the team’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player and a West-Division All-Star.

But when Leggett was not one of the three linebackers named to the CFL All-Star Team – they were Solomon Elimimian and Adam Bighill of the B.C. Lions and Bear Woods of the Montreal Alouettes – a few of his Bombers teammates took to social media to question the so-called snub.

All of this should simply fuel Leggett’s always-raging fire even more this season.

The departure of Bass, meanwhile, isn’t the only face from the linebacking crew to exit. Tony Burnett, a solid contributor when Wild was injured and a dynamo on special teams, signed with the Lions as a free agent, while Garrett Waggoner retired last month and Teague Sherman was not resigned.

The Bombers rely heavily on their Canadian linebackers to contribute on their kick-cover units and have a Sam Hurl, Jesse Briggs, Shayne Gauthier and added former Toronto Argonaut Thomas Miles – the ex-Churchill High School Bulldog/University of Manitoba Bisons product – to that often under-appreciated bunch.

That depth will make for some tough roster choices for Week 1. But when main camp opens Sunday, more than a few eyeballs will be fixated on the middle linebacker spot to see if a replacement for Bass stakes a claim for one of the most important positions in any defence.

IMPACT NEWCOMER

Kyrie Wilson, a former starter at Fresno State who had a stint with the Oakland Raiders last year, won’t have a lot of time to make an impression with CFL training camps so short. But he has good size at 6-2, 230 and could get a look both in the middle and at weak-side linebacker.

X-FACTOR

Kyle Knox was listed as the ‘Impact Newcomer’ a year ago after playing in 12 games with the New Orleans Saints in 2014 and seeing action with Jacksonville and Dallas. But Knox was dinged in main camp last year and that stalled his shot at pushing Bass in the middle. He did suit up for 11 games, primarily working on special teams but taking some defensive reps.

JUICY NUMBER

12/1

We’re dusting off a number from last year because it still applies. During a stretch from 1984-1995, the Bombers placed a linebacker on the CFL All-Star team a dozen times: Tyrone Jones from 1984-87, James West in 1987 and 1989, Aaron Brown in 1984, Greg Battle in 1990-91, K.D. Williams in 1995, Shonte Peoples in 1997 and Maurice Kelly in 1999.

In the last eight seasons the Bombers have had just one linebacker named to the CFL All-Star Team – Henoc Muamba in 2013.


This is the third in a position-by-position training-camp preview series by bluebombers.com.

Previously:

Special teams
Defensive backs 

The rest of our camp previews are scheduled as follows:

Defensive line, May 24
Offensive line, May 25
Running backs, May 26
Receivers, May 27
Quarterbacks, May 28