Monday Morning Sentimonies: Cuts, Curses and more Cuts

Thursday was cut down day across the CFL as teams had to finalize their rosters. While the Riders weren't able to cut everyone they wanted to they did cut a lot of people.

For the most part our cuts didn’t really surprise me. Here’s how I categorized them:

Not surprising: Nuvraj Bassi, Jeff Bolen, Bam Childress, Jason Geathers, Sasha Glavic, David Patterson, Brandon Perkins, Byron Ross, Brad Peters, Jerron Wishom and Seante Williams.

Surprising: Todd Blythe, Sam Olajubutu – Both were highly touted prospects but were injured throughout camp. As the saying goes, you can’t make the club in the tub. Still thought we might stash them on the injured list though.

We Liked Your Hustle, That’s Why It Was So Hard To Cut You: Juan Woah-seph. Poor Juan.

Fumbled His Way Off The Team: Casey McGahee

For me, who was cut was not really as surprising as who was not cut. I really thought that Gerran Walker and Adam Nicolson would be shown the door but they managed to stick on the injured list. Must be because of what they did last year because they sure didn’t do much in camp. Nick Hutchins was probably the biggest surprise in camp. Many people, myself included, assumed it was a foregone conclusion that he would go back to the Rams for his last year of eligibility. But Hutchins was very impressive all camp and definitely earned a spot. Dan Clark (who I will henceforth refer to as Nitro) was a pleasant surprise on the O-line too.

I still have no idea why Perri Scarcelli made our practice roster. Even if Boreham was more hurt than first suspected, Congi is more than capable of filling in. It’s not like Scarcelli is known for his leg strength.

Speaking of things I don’t understand… why do we have 2 long snappers on our active roster? You’d think going into our second full season with both we could make a decision! Unless we plan on introducing the revolutionary concept of situational long-snappers I see no need to waste an active roster spot on a back-up snapper... although I've found it never hurts to have one on speed dial.

Notable cuts from around the league:

BC – Kyle Mitchell (I said notable, not surprising)
Cal – Matt D’Orazio, Vince Marshall (So AFL’s top QB couldn’t cut it up here… I’m shocked)
Edm – Lester Ricard (I will miss announcers talking about Retard completing a pass)
Win – Joe Smith, JF Morin-Roberge, Matt O’Meara (League’s top rusher to a Bomber reject in 2 seasons... that’s quite the tumble)
Ham – Brandon Guillory (Guillory must really suck because it’s not like the D-line competition in Hamilton was all that tough)
Tor – Tyler Ebell, Jerome Mathis (So the highly touted NFL pro-bowler gets cut… again, I’m shocked)
Mtl – Reggie Hunt, Brad Banks (I feel bad for the Reaper for having to be in the same company as Brad Banks).

If you want evidence that the Riders are cursed, look no further than Neal Hughes. He was placed on the 9 game because of a lingering issue with his broken leg. But not the leg he broke last year, no the problems relate to the leg he broke 7 years ago as a Ram!! You’ve got to be freaking kidding me! We’ve got an injury list that’s already filling up with recent injuries and now we have to start worrying about injuries from 7 years ago?! This doesn’t happen to other teams. You don’t see the Stamps losing Henry Burris to a case of chicken pox that has lied dormant since elementary school. Seriously, what’s next?! Will we loose Scott Shultz to a rare recurring case of jaundice??

Other news from around the league…

Kenton Keith has been placed on the 9-game injured list. If you have been questioning the Riders’ personnel moves of late just remember that it could be worse, we could be the Ti-cats. They seem to be going out of their way to throw large amounts of money at big names players who end up not benefiting the team at all. I guess the positive here for Ti-cats fans (assuming any still exist) is that unlike Casey Printers, KK will at least not be able to negatively affect their on field performance.

Finally, Teyo Johnson has un-retired. His brief foray into retirement lasted only 4 weeks. Coincidentally those 4 weeks happened to coincide perfectly with training camp. I don’t know what’s more surprising, the fact that the Stamps are actually letting him get away with this or the fact that Teyo is the first person to think of this ingenious scam.

Family Reunion Themed Preview: Toronto

“Relatives from the big city that enjoy doing the majority of their shopping at the rich people's garage sales”

You know the types… always regaling you with tales of life in “the big city”, how great it is, how much they are a part of the “in” crowd. Thing is, most of it is a lie, while they do live in the big city, things aren’t that great and they are not part of the in crowd. In fact, their only connection to the “in” crowd is the items they manage to scavenge at rich people’s garage sales. Such as the half eaten bagel that Brad Pitt threw out because it was stale or Paul McCartney’s old car (sure its rusted, dinted up, has duct tape on the seats and needs to be started with a manual crank but it was McCartney’s nonetheless) and let’s not forget Bill Gates’ own personal computer… from 15 years ago (Windows 95 was good then, so it must still be good). Problem with these items (must like 90% of the Argos recruits) is that while they have famous names attached to them, they are virtually useless.

Biggest Acquisition: Rob Murphy
Biggest Loss: Byron Parker/Dominique Dorsey
Biggest Strength: Arland Bruce
Biggest Weakness: Defense
Question Mark: The all-Europe coaching staff.

If they did nothing else, solidifying the O-line that protects Kerry Joseph will make the Argos a much better team. Given how bad they were last year, they have a long way to go. They still have no run game to speak of and stop the runs about as well as a diet high in fibre and prunes. The addition of Moreno should help but, as he proved in Hamilton, Zeke can’t do it all on his own.

All eyes on Bart Andrus and the assistant coaches formerly known as NFL Europa. I guess to be fair, there’s no way he could be worse than the gong show that Rich Stubler ran last year.

Verdict: Assuming Andrus and Das coaching staff do a half decent job, the Argos should be a better team. They’ve improved at some key positions and would have to try really hard to be as bad as last year. That said they lost some of their top players and didn’t have that many good ones to begin with, so they are still a long ways away from the dominant Argos of days gone by.

2nd in the East despite a losing record at 8-10

Family Reunion Themed Preview: Edmonton

“Your uncle’s new girlfriend who’s good from far but far from good”

You notice that your uncle has just arrived to the reunion with a new girl in tow. This strikes you as odd since his divorce left him with a pot belly and an orange penis due to over indulgence of Cheetos and 1-900 numbers. But now he seems to be all cleaned up and the girl he just walked in with actually looks pretty hot. He sees you and comes over with his hot girlfriend in tow. But as they get closer you realize that this girlfriend seems to get uglier and uglier the closer she gets until your pretty sure that your uncle shaved a gorilla and dolled it up in some makeup and a sundress. A clear case of good from far but far from good. Paper bags and dim lighting would be this girl’s best friends.

Biggest Acquisition: Mo Lloyd
Biggest Loss: Kelley Campbell
Biggest Strength: Ricky Ray
Biggest Weakness: Defense/running
Question Mark: Rebuilt Defense

On the surface it would seem that Edmonton has taken all the necessary steps to improve on the weaknesses of last year. They replaced their brutal head coach, brought in a marquee running back to help their non-existent ground game and rebuilt their porous defense. But if you dig deeper you realize that things aren’t as good as they appear.

While I have the utmost respect for Richie Hall, I have my doubts about is ability to be as effective a head coach as he was a D-Coordinator. Seems like a Danny Barrett type to me (to be fair though, that is a giant improvement over Maciocia). Jesse Lumsden is a band aid that will vastly improve their run game for 2.35 games before settling back onto the injury list. There are building a secondary around Scott Gordon and Kelly Malveaux and continuing to waste Kitwana’s talent at DE which I’m sure suits the other 7 teams just fine. Mo Lloyd is an impact player but given his fairly weak supporting cast he will have a lot on his shoulders. He may be good but he can’t do it all by himself. Most importantly, the Esks have very little depth. So while I expect them to start the season strong, when injuries start piling up we’re going to see them drop like Man In The Bush’s pants when he’s had a few too many.

Verdict: This is a mediocre team overall with very little depth. They will have to rely on Ray, Lumsden and Lloyd to carry them. While they are all among the tops at their position, there’s just no way I can see them being good enough to carry 39 other players in a very competitive division.
4th in the west at 8-10

Family Reunion Themed Preview: Winnipeg

“Psychotic Cousin No One Wants To Acknowledge”



He’s the guy that none of the family publicly admits to being related to. In fact, he wasn’t even invited to the reunion but he somehow found out and showed up (much to the chagrin of everyone else). Now everyone is trying desperately to avoid getting stuck in a conversation with him. He’s crazy, prone to nonsensical rambling, he has anger management issues, the list goes on and on. Everyone would be a lot happier if he just disappeared.

Biggest Acquisition: Sideeq Shabazz
Biggest Loss: Dan Goodspeed
Biggest Strength: Receivers
Biggest Weakness: Kicking
Question Mark: O-Line

Well no one can question the fact that Mike Kelly is a man of action. He has been a very busy man since taking office in December. In just 6 short months he has managed to publicly insult his predecessor, replace 3/4 of his roster, question longstanding league rules, get reprimanded by the league and necessitate a written apology from the team on his behalf. Not sure when he found time to sleep.

While Mike Kelly is clearly mad, the question is, will there turn out to be method to his madness? He replaced all-stars along the O-line with second string Riders. He let some very good assistant coaches go. He’s going to field essentially a new defense featuring the oldest front 4 in recent memory. And the competition for the leader of his new offense is between a south paw and a side arm thrower (it’s like the QB freak show minus giant Chad Freihauf). All that and we haven’t even mentioned that his solution to having the worst kicking game in the league is to bring back the kicker responsible for that dubious distinction.

Verdict: In the long term, there’s an outside chance Kelly’s crazy plan might end up working out… but in the short term it will be like most Manitoba residents… not pretty.
Dead last in the league at 4 -14

Family Reunion Themed Preview: BC

“Cousin Who Was Once A Famous Athlete”



It wasn’t that long ago that they were on top of the world. The best of the best. A champion that all others could only hope to emulate. But all good things must come to an end, and he’s no exception. Now he just sits around talking about how good he was back in the day and how it won’t be long before he’s back on top. The whole family listens and says “sure you will” sympathetically but behind his back they roll their eyes at the fact that he just can’t admit that he’s not as good as he used to be. Time has passed and some of those things that made him a champion have slipped away. He’s still got some skills but it will take a lot of training to get back in game shape (the kind you can only get by using a beef carcass as a punching bag). For now he just positions himself next to the bowl of Doritos and repeatedly points out his championship ring to any passersby that come too close.

Biggest Acquisition: Anton McKenzie
Biggest Loss: Cam Wake
Biggest Strength: Coaching
Biggest Weakness: QB
Question Mark: Player Turnover

Wally Buono may the best in the business when it comes to building winning teams but you’ve got to admit that he’s got his work cut out for him this season. After maintaining a relatively stable roster for the past few years, the Lions are faced with replacing Cam Wake, Jamall Johnson, Rob Murphy, Kelly Bates, Stephan Logan, Jason Clermont, Otis Floyd and Tyrone Williams all at once. Now you can argue that a couple of those guys aren’t huge losses but the fact remains they have some big shoes to fill.

Defensively, I’m guessing they will remain fairly solid. Wake is a big loss but with guys like Hunt, Johnson, Banks, Glatt, Anton and Miles they are still a formidable opponent. Offensively, I’m assuming they can find a descent RB (if you can’t manage that you have no business being in football). That leaves QB as their main concern. Pierce is good but he’s as durable as a Roughrider’s fibula. If he plays 10 games it will be a miracle. That leaves Jarious Jackson… and the best thing I can say about him is that I consider him to be a slightly more intelligent Michael Bishop.

Verdict: They couldn’t manage better than 3rd place last year with Wake and Logan on the roster so I seriously doubt they can all of the sudden make it back to 1st without them. They still have a lot of talent and top notch coaching though so they will remain competitive.
3rd in the West at 10-8.

Family Reunion Themed Preview: Montreal

“Snooty Rich Aunt With an Affinity For Antiques”

Like that rich aunt you have who is always subtly insulting you for being poor, Montreal has an air of arrogance around them. They are not overtly rude (well at least not by French standards) but you can always tell they think they are better than you. This rich aunt also loves antiques, they just don’t make things like they used to you know. And while all her antiques are very nice and valuable, all it takes is one person to bump into them the wrong way and they are going to break. Then she will be left with nothing and be forced to spend the next few years slowly rebuilding her collection.

Biggest Acquisition: Jerome Haywood
Biggest Loss: Jerome Haywood (well that worked out well)
Biggest Strength: Calvillo and the passing game
Biggest Weakness: Pass Defense
Question Mark: How long can their old folks hold on?

Calvillo, Chui, Cahoon and Sanchez… all arguably among the best in the league. All also the wrong side of 35. And it’s not like any of Montreal’s other star’s are young pups either (with the exception of Jamal Richardson and Keron Williams). At some point age will catch up to the team.

They are pretty much fielding the same offense as last year which should mean a very potent attack yet again. Their weakness is pass defense. Last year they were second only to Hamilton is most passing yards allowed. Jim Popp and Marc Trestman elected to make very little changes so it’s up to the players and coaches to improve if they don’t want to celebrate Calvillo’s 5th straight Grey Cup choke.

Verdict: Pretty sure the old guys have one more season left in them before they trade in their football cleats for orthopedic velcro shoes and their signing bonuses for old age security cheques. As long as the old guys hold up they should cruise through a weak set of eastern opponents en route to another first place finish…
1st in the East at 11-7

Getting Closer…

Riders 19 – Stamps 27

Was it ever great to return to the hallowed football grounds that is Mosaic Stadium. A warm summer’s evening. The excitement of a hometown crowd. Reuniting with the people in your section. Getting overcharged for alcohol. Yes, it’s good to back. Of course the evening would have been better if we had actually won the game but you take the good with the bad.

I was a lot happier with our performance this week. We played the best team in the league very closely for most of the game and you gotta like that. There’s definitely things we need to work on before we open the season but we looked like a competitive team and in the preseason that’s all that really matters.

Here are some random observations from last night:

- How were there TV timeouts in a non-televised game?

- Loved the Eddie Davis pick to open the game! I never tire of seeing Burris choke in person.

- Okay I am now firmly on the bandwagon of Stevie Baggs, “The Pigeon Toed Wonder”. He’s got such tremendous hustle and seems to have a knack for popping the ball loose. I still have no idea how he manages to do it given his aforementioned pigeon toes but at this point I don’t really care.

- Hugh Charles is another guy who made a strong impression. He is a Charles Roberts-style RB and should be a very capable replacement until Cates gets healthy.

- Durant cemented himself as our starter. He made a couple bad throws but he made some nice ones too (like that TD to Fantuz). More importantly he never seems to panic when pressured. He's smart and poised in the pocket… I think he’ll do fine this season.

- Eric Morris seems to have leapfrogged both Childress and McGahee in the kick returner competition. His returns were decent and consistent plus he'd be a deadly 6th receiver too. I don't think he dropped a ball all pre-season.

- McGahee had fallen behind Morris even before he cost us the game by coughing up the ball on that kick return. Miller said in his post-game interview that he doesn't expect McGahee to make that mistake again; I hope the second half of that sentence was "because we'll never let him on the field again."

- Daniel Francis may have also earned himself a roster spot with his bone jarring hits.

- Why did we even bother dressing Jeff Bolen and Perri Scarcelli? Not sure pads and cleats are required to be Congi and Boreham’s cheerleaders.

- Speaking of Congi, where did he learn how to punt? I was starting to think that Boreham’s job might be in jeopardy… then Congi attempted a kickoff and we were reminded of why we keep the Juggernaut around.

- I’m going to go ahead and assume that we were playing a really basic defensive scheme in order to evaluate players, because the way we were given 10 yard cushions as the Stamps completed out after out on us made me wonder if Omarr Morgan was our D Coordinator not Etcheverry. I’m guessing we’ll see some more effective schemes on D when the games start actually mattering.

- Whichever Stampeder it was that made the ill-informed decision to run that one kick out of the endzone for a 2 yard gain, better start looking for other employment opportunities, I don’t think this Calgary thing will pan out for him.

And of course no post on the Riders over the past 2 years would be complete without talking about injuries. Gene Makowksy went down in the first half with what has been diagnosed as an MCL strain and Geno is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. So before the season has even started we are already down 2 starting OL, a star RB, as well a couple other players who were expected to be on the roster.

This is getting ridiculous. We started last season fairly healthy but by the end we were struggling to field 42 healthy bodies each week. This season we’re already starting off in the hole. At this rate, we may end up having to promote the Saskatoon Huskies to the CFL if injuries keep piling up.