The CFL
off-season is about half way through and the league is using the hashtag #IsItJuneYet? to help us through. So
it's time for us to check in on what's happening in football north of the 49th
Parallel.
The 2016
fixture list came out last week, pre-season will start on 9th June
with each team having two games. The opening game is on 24th June
when the Toronto Argonauts will host
their bitter local rivals, the Hamilton
Tiger-Cats. Also in Week 1 there's a Grey
Cup rematch as Ottawa Redblacks
travel to the champion Edmonton Eskimos.
That should see the season started with a bang. The regular season continues
until November and then there are three rounds of play-offs before we're back
in Toronto for the Grey Cup on November 27th.
So what's
been happening since the 2015 Grey Cup? Well, lots. There's been a big round of
coaching moves and a record number of players are in the free agent market.
Here's a
team by team run down on some of what's happened so far.
Edmonton
Eskimos
The fans didn't get long to celebrate the Esks first championship in 10 years. By the time their hangovers had cleared, a few maybe not even sober yet, news was breaking that head Coach Chris Jones was leaving to take over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He'd had a financial offer he couldn't refuse. What's worse Jones took a lot of his assistants with him. The Esks moved quickly to appoint a replacement. The man they chose was Jason Maas, the one time Edmonton quarterback who impressed everyone last year while he was the Offensive Co-ordinator of the team Edmonton beat in the Grey Cup, the Ottawa Redblacks.
The fans didn't get long to celebrate the Esks first championship in 10 years. By the time their hangovers had cleared, a few maybe not even sober yet, news was breaking that head Coach Chris Jones was leaving to take over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He'd had a financial offer he couldn't refuse. What's worse Jones took a lot of his assistants with him. The Esks moved quickly to appoint a replacement. The man they chose was Jason Maas, the one time Edmonton quarterback who impressed everyone last year while he was the Offensive Co-ordinator of the team Edmonton beat in the Grey Cup, the Ottawa Redblacks.
On the
player front at least three free agents have followed Jones to Saskatchewan.
They've held onto receiver Adarius
Bowman and linebacker JC Sherrit
who have both signed new two year contracts though. New players coming in
include former NFL offensive players Jacoby
Ford and Joe McKnight.
Saskatchewan
Roughriders
After their dreadful 2015 season the big news
in Riderville is obviously the Chris
Jones appointment. He's been given at least four jobs; Head Coach, General
Manager, Defensive Co-ordinator and vice-president of football operations.
Despite having a small home market the Riders are the most successful team in
money terms. They can afford to pay Jones big money for each of his new jobs so
it's not such a surprise that he made the move.
Jones
started work quickly by cutting large numbers of the playing squad. Among the
notable departures have been a couple of veteran fan favourites, defensive end John Chick and receiver Weston Dressler. Jones said he was
making cap space to rebuild the team.
Lots of
trades and signings have been made as Jones rebuilds. They'll be almost
unrecognisable from last year's. The most prominent free agent signing so far
has been defensive end Justin
Capicciotti coming from Ottawa, who should be an upgrade on Chick.
Ottawa
Redblacks
The loss of Jason Maas has been a big hit to the Redblacks. By time honoured tradition, when a coach leaves a team to take a job elsewhere which is a promotion from his existing position then no compensation for his contract has been paid, or requested. The Redblacks decided to buck that rule and have demanded compensation from Edmonton. The League Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge has arranged for the matter to go to arbitration.
The big player move is the signing of quarterback Trevor Harris from Toronto. After his success last year Harris would have been looking for a starting role. Instead he'll be back up to the League MVP Henry Burris. Burris will be 41 years old by the time the season starts, he's lasted a lot better than Peyton Manning but he can't go on for ever, can he?
Big losses will be DE Justin Capicciotti and RB Jeramiah Johnson. The record breaking group of receivers from last year should still be intact though.
The loss of Jason Maas has been a big hit to the Redblacks. By time honoured tradition, when a coach leaves a team to take a job elsewhere which is a promotion from his existing position then no compensation for his contract has been paid, or requested. The Redblacks decided to buck that rule and have demanded compensation from Edmonton. The League Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge has arranged for the matter to go to arbitration.
The big player move is the signing of quarterback Trevor Harris from Toronto. After his success last year Harris would have been looking for a starting role. Instead he'll be back up to the League MVP Henry Burris. Burris will be 41 years old by the time the season starts, he's lasted a lot better than Peyton Manning but he can't go on for ever, can he?
Big losses will be DE Justin Capicciotti and RB Jeramiah Johnson. The record breaking group of receivers from last year should still be intact though.
Calgary
Stampeders
There's a change at Head Coach in Calgary too, but this one was expected. Having achieved his 100th win as head coach John Hufnagel has stepped aside to promote offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson to the Head Coach position. Hufnagel stays on as General Manager and President.
There's a change at Head Coach in Calgary too, but this one was expected. Having achieved his 100th win as head coach John Hufnagel has stepped aside to promote offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson to the Head Coach position. Hufnagel stays on as General Manager and President.
The team has
lost big name offensive players. Running back Jon Cornish has retired to spend more time with other people’s
money while last year's top receiver, Eric Rogers, has signed a two year deal
with the San Francisco 49ers. Jeff
Fuller has gone from the receiving corps too, reportedly having become a Seattle Seahawk, at least until the end
of training camp.
The Stampeders have re-signed RB Jerome Messam, who played for them at the tail end of last season and have acquired receiver Bakari Grant from the Tiger-Cats through free agency.
The Stampeders have re-signed RB Jerome Messam, who played for them at the tail end of last season and have acquired receiver Bakari Grant from the Tiger-Cats through free agency.
Hamilton
Tiger-Cats
The Ti-Cats didn't get involved in the coach’s merry-go-round, mostly because their people have no-move agreements in their contracts in exchange for enhanced job security. Head Coach/GM Kent Austin had his contract extended by 4 years.
The Ti-Cats didn't get involved in the coach’s merry-go-round, mostly because their people have no-move agreements in their contracts in exchange for enhanced job security. Head Coach/GM Kent Austin had his contract extended by 4 years.
There's
optimism that quarterback Zach Collaros
will return from his September knee injury early in the season. Meantime Jeramiah Masoli, who proved himself the
best back-up to Collaros, has had his contract extended. Hamilton's main
priority was re-signing linebacker Ted
Laurent and they managed it, despite Montreal putting in a rival offer.
Receiver Terrell Sinkfield has
signed a futures contract with the Minnesota
Vikings. He'll be replaced by Chad
Owens, the CFL's Most Outstanding Player of 2012 (see graphic). As the big
star of the Argos Hamilton fans generally hated him, so it'll be an interesting
transition.
Winnipeg
Blue Bombers
Another significant coaching move here, the Bombers filled their Offensive Coordinator vacancy by hiring the man most agree they shouldn't have fired as head coach four years ago, Paul LaPolice. You'll recognise LaPolice, he's the guy who did the detailed breakdown of plays on the TSN Halftime Show. Cue jokes from around the league saying he's only taken the job as he'll still be available to work for TSN during the play-offs....
Not so quick though, if there's one thing we learned from last season was that teams need two good quarterbacks. Winnipeg have Drew Willy and Matt Nichols in place. And they've made some good looking player moves so far. In have come Weston Drexler and Ryan Smith from Saskatchewan and top Canadian running back Andrew Harris from BC. They've also replaced kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, who had a disastrous end to last season and cost them a couple of games, with one of the best in Justin Medlock.
Another significant coaching move here, the Bombers filled their Offensive Coordinator vacancy by hiring the man most agree they shouldn't have fired as head coach four years ago, Paul LaPolice. You'll recognise LaPolice, he's the guy who did the detailed breakdown of plays on the TSN Halftime Show. Cue jokes from around the league saying he's only taken the job as he'll still be available to work for TSN during the play-offs....
Not so quick though, if there's one thing we learned from last season was that teams need two good quarterbacks. Winnipeg have Drew Willy and Matt Nichols in place. And they've made some good looking player moves so far. In have come Weston Drexler and Ryan Smith from Saskatchewan and top Canadian running back Andrew Harris from BC. They've also replaced kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, who had a disastrous end to last season and cost them a couple of games, with one of the best in Justin Medlock.
Toronto
Argonauts
The big
changes in Toronto have happened behind the scenes. At New Year the ownership
of the franchise was transferred from David
Braley, who also owns BC Lions, to Larry
Tanenbaum. The team are re-locating too. It's goodbye to the lifeless Rogers Centre where they played second
fiddle to the Blue Jays baseball
team and were forced to play home games away. Their home will be the newly
refurbished BMO Field on the shores of Lake
Ontario which they'll share with Toronto
FC of the MLS. Last week a roof
was being added to the spectator area. BMO will host the Grey Cup this year.
The Argos
have chosen to stick with their 36 year old future Hall of Fame quarterback Ricky Ray and in the process lost back
up Trevor Harris who led them last
season in Ray's absence. Rebuilding the O line to protect Ray has been a
priority. Most notably, Brian Bulcke
is coming in from Hamilton.
Moves to the
NFL are taking their toll on the team. Kicker Swayze Waters has left to try his luck with the Carolina Panthers, and replacing him
will be the aforementioned Lirim
Hajrullahu which doesn't sound too promising though is probably
inexpensive. Their defence has taken a hit as Cleyon Laing and Tristan
Okpalaugo are going south too.
Montreal
Alouettes
We knew
before the end of last season that the interim head coach Jim Popp is going to continue in both the coach and GM roles this
season.
I'm not
going to pretend to understand what Popp's plan is with linebackers. They'll
have their defensive leader Bear Woods
back after injury cost him the whole of last season and they made a big effort
to sign Ted Laurent from Hamilton. However having failed there
they then cut Canadian Henoc Muamba
who had a year left on his contract and caused such a frenzy when he became
available in the second half of last season. The ex-Indianapolis Colt is reportedly going to try the NFL again, expect
another bidding war if that doesn't work out. Montreal have signed receiver Kenny Stafford from Edmonton. The Alouettes tend to make
one signing every year designed to make headlines. Last year it was Michael Sam. Don't know yet who it'll
be this year.
BC Lions
The last Head Coach change is at BC. Jeff Tedford was unpopular with the players, in fact it may well have been mutual, and he resigned after the end of the season. The Lions have brought their former head Coach Wally Buono out from the backroom to run the team again.
The last Head Coach change is at BC. Jeff Tedford was unpopular with the players, in fact it may well have been mutual, and he resigned after the end of the season. The Lions have brought their former head Coach Wally Buono out from the backroom to run the team again.
They'll be
without top Canadian running back Andrew
Harris who's joined the Bombers, but they have managed to keep the services
of a couple of players who were free agents, receiver Emmanuel Arceneaux and running back Chris Rainey. He'll be joined in the backfield by ex-Redblack Jeremiah Johnson. There was speculation that veteran quarterback Travis Lulay
would retire, particularly as he did a very good TV stint during the play-offs,
but he's signed an extension and will be competing with Jonathon Jennings for
the starting role.
Looking
ahead
There's
still a long way to go until we have final rosters of course. There's the
college draft in early May and the team scouts are busy looking for unknown
American players who'll try their luck in the team training camps in June. As always, lots won't make it but one or two
of them will turn out to be stars.
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