Monday Morning Sentimonies: Is That All Of Them?

Somehow the Riders managed to unearth another player from Regina to sign. And as an added bonus, this one also happens to be a cornerback. In our continuing effort to corner the market on both Saskatchewan born players and Canadian CBs, the Riders signed Joel Lipinski over the weekend. Lipinski is a born and raised Regina boy who played for the Rams.

My favourite comment on our new recruiting strategy comes from Marc Parenteau’s blog on Riderville.com… “As you may know, due to last year’s injury plagued season there was some budget cut back so we could only afford to scout within the city limit and the coaches all shared one bus pass.”

The CFL’s Supplemental Draft goes today. It’s actually not much of a draft since there is only one eligible player… OL Zac Carlson. Basically, anyone who didn’t have their non-import status approved in time for the actual draft goes in to the supplemental one and teams pick in order of waiver priority. If a team actually drafts someone they forfeit the corresponding pick next year.

It is pretty much a lock that Hamilton will take Carlson in the 1st round (thus forfeiting their 1st rounder in 2010). Despite the steep price, this is a good move by Hamilton. Carlson was a projected top 5 pick this year and has the ability to play tackle. Hamilton is a good example of how you effectively use first round picks to improve your O-line. This is in stark contrast to the Blue Bombers who have somehow managed to trade away all their first round picks over the last decade (and already have a good start on the next decade) while simultaneously dismantling their O-line. Look, if Marcel Bellefeuille can figure it out… it can’t be all that hard.

Former Hamilton QB Casey Printers was back in the news last week. He has fired his agent (who just happens to be his uncle) and will now be handling all his own contract negotiations. This of course won’t be too difficult for Printers given that there are no contract offers on the table that need negotiating. Nor will there likely be any in the near future. He has apparently attempted to contact the Lions but he’s been about as successful in connecting with Buono as he was at connecting with receivers in Hamilton. No worries, being the smart business man that he is, Printers has a flourishing business as a motivational speaker to fall back on… seriously check out his website. (To be fair, it would be more accurate to replace the word “flourishing business” with “misguided pipe dream “, add the prefix “de” to motivational and replace “fall back on” with “complete his decent into utter failure” in the previous sentence).

Monday Morning Sentimonies wouldn’t be complete without a Michael Bishop update. In a surprising turn of events, Bishop’s Hammerheads broke a 3 game losing streak by beating the Odessa Roughnecks over the weekend. Michael Bishop played a big role in the win… he threw zero interceptions and didn’t even fumble. You’re probably asking yourself how this is possible… well I should add that the reason Bishop didn’t make any mistakes was because he didn’t set foot on the field. The Hammerheads finally realized that if they simply bench Bishop their odds of winning greatly increase (if only the Riders could have figured that one out a bit earlier). I really love being able to take pleasure in Bishop’s failure without it negatively affecting the Riders.

CFL Ins and Outs

Edmonton
In: DB Ryan Glasper, LB Mark Restelli, WR Kevin Wuthrich, LB Rod Davis, LB Rory Johnson, LB Shaun Richardson (free agent signing), OL Gord Hinse (2009 draft pick signing), OL Gerald Davis (trade with Hamilton)
Out: DL Tyler Clutts, WR Greg Prator, DL Adrain Baird (cut)
Hinse signed a 4 year plus an option contract… so either the contract was insanely lucrative or Hinse has a really bad agent because signing a 5 year deal is generally a pretty bad move for player.

Calgary
In: LB Tray Blackmon, LB Kurt Campbell, DL Justin Brown, DL EJ Kuale (free agent signing), DL Ronald Hilaire (2008 draft pick signing)
Out: QB Ben Sankey, DB Richard Karikari, LB Saleem Rasheed, DL Howard Hodges (cut)
This is becoming an annual event. The Stamps sign Sankey because one of their QBs gets hurt, he lasts until the end of the season and then ends up getting cut. Then next year the cycle starts all over again. He’s like the football equivalent of a low grade booty call.

BC
In: WR Jerel Myers (free agent signing), Justin Sorensen (2008 draft pick signing)
In case you were wondering Jerel is not related to Mike Myers or Devo drummer Alan Myers.

Hamilton
In: LB Isaac Brown, DB Virgil Gray, DL Elton Patterson, WR Jacob Willis (free agent signing), Simeon Rottier (2009 draft pick signing)
Out: DB Rontarius Robinson, WR Jojo Walker, LB Tim Goodwell (cut), OL Gerald Hamilton (trade with Edmonton)
Poor Ronta, he’s really sliding fast since winning a cup with us in ’07. First we don't offer him a contract, then his only offer is from the lowly Ti-cats, then after minimal playing time, they cut him. Media Consultant would like to pass along his best wishes to Cousin Ron.

Winnipeg
In: Brock Ralph (contract extension), K Dan Giancola, DL Aaron McConnell, WR Tyrone Timmins, WR Chris Jackson (free agent signing)
Out: K Kenneth Byrd, DB Marlon Fair, DL Josh Miller, LB Roderick Johnson, LB AJ Nicholson (cut)
Last year, the Bombers had the worst kicker in the league in Alexis Serna. Clearly they needed to improve that this offseason. While Mike Kelly was smart enough to realize this, for reasons I have yet to figure out, he decided that this could be accomplished by signing a 39 year old kicker who hasn’t played in 5 years… and wasn’t even that good back then. This could go down as one of the worst kicking competitions in CFL training camp history. Troy Westwood must be beside himself with rage.