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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers brought down the axe on Friday, and more chips will be flying on Saturday as all Canadian Football League clubs make cuts to their rosters with the curtain rising on the 2017 season in less than a week.
The Bombers released six – five imports and one Canadian – and will have to be down to 46 by Saturday’s 9 p.m. deadline. Cut adrift were receiver Justice Liggins, defensive backs Darnell Walker Jr. and Matt Smalley, linebacker Nick Temple, offensive lineman Trevan Brown and Canadian O-lineman Cody Speller.
Of that half dozen, only Temple played in a game last season for the Bombers – and he suited up for just one.
The meatier cuts will come Saturday as the Bombers must declare their 46-man roster and then their 10-player practice squad.
“There’s some guys that rose to the occasion and shone with their ability,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea after Thursday’s 38-38 tie with the Edmonton Eskimos. “There’s going to be lots of tough decisions to make.”
Much of the Bombers roster is already set – the offensive line will be intact, Matt Nichols is the starting QB and will be surrounded by Darvin Adams, Andrew Harris, Weston Dressler, Clarence Denmark and Julian Feoli-Gudino.
It’s all but a given the defence will feature familiar names like Chris Randle, Taylor Loffler, T.J. Heath, Ian Wild, Moe Leggett, Jamaal Westerman and Jake Thomas and will include new vets like Drake Nevis and Tristan Okpalaugo.
Oh, and from the Department of Stating the Obvious, this just in… Justin Medlock will be the kicker.
But some of the unanswered questions remain – Who starts at middle linebacker? Who will be the kick returner? – and will likely remain into the club’s opening-week bye and into their regular season opener Canada Day in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
And so, it’s here where that Week 1 bye now doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.
“It’s a long training camp beating our heads together,” stated Nichols. “It will be nice for these guys to rest their legs a little bit and then be full throttle for Week 1.
“Some of these teams have to turn around six or seven days from now and play a Week 1 game and that can be tough sometimes after a long camp. Honestly, I think this is going to be good for us and our other bye comes at a good time, at the midway point of the season.”
Nichols said one of his priorities during the bye – the Bombers will still practice, though not every day – is to have the offence meet separate from the coaches to go over some areas that need tuning.
The other bonus to the bye is more strategic: by the time the Bombers face the Riders, Saskatchewan will have already played their first game – in Montreal against Darian Durant and the Alouettes. That gives the club some film to devour and gameplan for heading into their first game.
More on the final Bombers preseason effort in our weekly post-game installment of ‘Upon Further Review’:
MATT NICHOLS LOOKED SOLID, DOM DAVIS WAS IMPRESSIVE… and Dan LeFevour did his thing, again, in the tie with the Eskimos, as the three Bomber quarterbacks combined to go 28 of 35 for 355 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Yes, it’s just the preseason. Yes, the Eskimos left a good chunk of their starters in Northern Alberta. But a handful of wags in the press box were also wondering aloud about the last time the Bombers seemed to have this much QB depth.
After the game, O’Shea indicated that all three quarterbacks “are going to have important roles for us this year.”
But when asked if Thursday’s work by the quarterbacks made his decision as to who would be the No. 2 man behind Nichols any easier or tougher, O’Shea provided a different take.
“I don’t look at it that way,” he said. “I think it’s exciting to have three guys who can move the football. That gives us more opportunities to win games. I don’t see that as a problem.”
The play of LeFevour, based on his past experience, shouldn’t really surprise anyone. But Davis jumped off the page again with his poise, his arm, and his mobility.
“I’m just doing what the coaches tell me to do and when there’s opportunities there to take a shot deep, I will. I just want to continue to prove that,” said Davis with a shrug.
“I feel like they brought me back to be the No. 2 and I’m going to keep continuing to build and show the coaches I can be that No. 2 and potentially be a starter in the future. The coaches always tell us they don’t determine the depth chart, we do. I feel like I did a pretty good job and now it’s in their hands.”
NOW, FOR AS MUCH PRAISE AS THE OFFENCE GOT… the defence will certainly enter the regular season still under the microscope.
The Bombers surrendered more yards than any other team in the CFL last year, and based on the two preseason games – even with a forever-changing roster – still looked vulnerable to the ‘explosion’ plays they so desperately want to limit.
“We came out slow. We’ll improve on that,” said all-star safety Taylor Loffler. “It was the first game with all the starters out there.
“It’s just coming out and flying around. Everyone knows the defence… everyone just needs to work on getting to the ball and that just comes with playing.”
Of note: the Bombers were nailed for 16 penalties for 205 yards against the Eskimos. Only one – a five-yard offside – came on offence; three came on kick returns and a whopping dozen, for 172 yards, were on defence.
ONE OF THE NEW FACES WHO SEEMS TO BE GETTING BETTER… with every snap is rookie defensive back Brandon Alexander.
We wrote about Alexander earlier in the week and in that story, O’Shea talked about the cornerback’s ‘all-day motor.’
That motor was revving on Thursday night as Alexander opened the game playing cornerback opposite Chris Randle and lined up on special teams. And his last rep was just as impressive as his first and he also brought a lot of emotion to a unit that seemed, on occasion, to be flat.
“That’s who I am,” Alexander said. “I see other guys jumping around and I get excited, too. You can’t do anything without having some kind of emotion and it gets everybody else riled up and ready to go. I play with a lot of emotion.
“I hope I helped myself with my hard work, by just running to the ball, by running around on special teams and then going on defence. I’m 100 percent full-out effort.
“Whatever opportunity you get, you have to make the best of it out there. When they call you and it’s time to go, you have to have that kind of motor and when you get the chance to make a play, it’s got to be full-speed. You don’t have to be the strongest, the fastest, the biggest or the best, but you have to be somebody who wants to get to the ball and wants to make an effort. Plays come out of effort.”
AND ONE OF THE GREYBEARDS THAT IS STILL GETTING IT DONE… is veteran slotback Clarence Denmark. There was some chatter heading into Thursday’s game that three receivers – Denmark, T.J. Thorpe and Kenny Stafford – were fighting for two slotback jobs opposite Weston Dressler.
Denmark did his thing with three catches for 47 yards. And for a guy who didn’t re-join the Bombers until Week 7 last year, he has developed a wonderful chemistry with Nichols.
“It’s been great. I can’t say enough good things about him,” said Nichols of Denmark. “He’s an extremely hard worker, competitive guy and always finds a way to get open. He even joked last year that when I caught a touchdown pass I threw it up in the stands and it landed in an #89 jersey. For some reason me and Clarence find the end zone and he’s a guy that I can rely on and have a lot of faith in.”
IT’S BEEN A LONG OFFSEASON FOR KEVIN FOGG… especially after ending last year watching the West Semi-Final because of injury and then needing offseason surgery.
But the second-year defensive back returned to practice this past week and was back in action against the Eskimos.
“It feels good, always, to be back on the field with the team,” said Fogg. “It’s been seven long months. I felt a little rusty coming back… I had two practices this week. It helped me gauge to see where I was at and so now I have something to build off and work to get better.
“I’m still working. That’s what training camp is for – to get that key work and conditioning in. I’m not where I want to be, but if you always felt you were where you want to be, you’d be complacent and satisfied. I never want to be satisfied.”
WE ALL KNOW NOW ABOUT THE RECEIVING SKILLS OF ANDREW HARRIS… after he finished last year with 67 receptions, to go along with his abilities as a ball carrier.
Timothy Flanders saw Harris do his thing from up-close last year and, as the veteran’s understudy also trying to force his way onto the roster, worked to improve his receiving skills, too.
Flanders was a star at Sam Houston State and did catch 34 passes as a sophomore. But after moving around the NFL and to the B.C. Lions before landing in Winnipeg, he also saw the need to hone his craft even further.
He had three catches for 37 yards against the Esks and three catches for 19 yards against the Riders a week ago.
“It’s been the one thing I’ve really been working on and trying to improve,” said Flanders of his receiving skills. “And I’m still working on it. It’s one of the main things I did all offseason: run routes as a receiver because I hardly did any routes coming out of the backfield as a receiver with the ‘Waggle’ and all that.
“You’ve got to be good at it. Andrew was good early on in his career and he’s still doing it… he’s always up there with the receivers in catches. To me, I’m trying to make sure I can keep up. I mean, God forbid he gets hurt again this year, but I have to be ready for that. I don’t want them to be saying, ‘OK, now (Flanders) is playing… we’ve got to adjust the offence.’ I want to be able to do the same things he does.”
AND FINALLY, WHEN COACH O’SHEA WAS ASKED… about the passing this week of CFL coaching legend Don Matthews, it was clear how much of an influence The Don was on him.
O’Shea played for Matthews during his days with the Toronto Argonauts and in 1996-97, the Boatmen served up two of the most dominant seasons in CFL history, going 34-6 and winning two Grey Cups.
“A lot of funny stories, a lot of great memories. He made us champions,” said O’Shea. “Even when you were around him you were a champion. Great man and I’m very fortunate that I had the chance to be around him.
“He was a helluva coach, obviously, maybe the best in CFL history. There’s a lot of talk about his personality, his larger-than-life persona, but you can’t forget how much of an innovator he was and how he took people and put them in the rights spots and found ways to make them very good football players.
“One of the things he said to me one time was, ‘Never miss an opportunity to coach.’ That could have been five seconds in passing in the hallway or turning around on the sideline. He got your attention and he gave you something that was going to make you better, if you applied it. Then he wanted to see you apply it and if you didn’t apply it then you met Don again.”
O’Shea also spoke of how Matthews didn’t sweat the small stuff – some coaches go ballistic when players sit on helmets, he didn’t give a hoot – but when you walked onto the field every player had to be all in, all the time.
“He cemented the idea that you worked for your job every single day. It was on the line every single day. You never believed you were set… and I think that’s a great thing, it really is. As a pro football player, pro athlete, to compete for your job every single day, every game, that’s the way it should be.”
