Foley Is Good

I had planned on posting a blog this morning on the Foley acquisition and the Riders must have sensed that pulled the trigger on a trade. Well the jokes on them, thanks to my procrastination, unlike normal it’s no problem.

Let’s start with the signing of Ricky Foley. Simply put it’s a great move. The only thing that puzzles me is why some people don’t like this move?!? We trade multiple draft picks for a head case… people applaud. We trade for an ancient receiver and hand him a blank check… standing ovation. But sign a bonafide starter, former top Canadian that addresses a need and this is when people question things? How can you not like this?

He fills a need, he’s Canadian and he’s pretty darn good too. Essentially we managed to replace Odell Willis with a more mentally stable, less penalty inclined, Canadian who provides more consistent effort. If you say that their pass rushing abilities are similar than this is a massive upgrade. No one is more critical of our GM than me but I gotta admit, he did good this time. Not sure how we are affording all our offseason acquisitions but I assume there will be a couple high profile cuts coming soon to balance things off.

As for today’s trade, normally I am not a fan of Taman’s tendency for tossing draft picks around, but today’s was a good one. We send two 5^th round picks to Edmonton for a 6^th and the well travelled Canadian kicker Brody McKnight. You may not know who McKnight is but despite having a CFL career that is a mere 3 games the man has a more storied history than most of our roster. Here’s the summary

-       In the 2011 draft the Als mysteriously used the 8^th overall draft pick to select McKnight, despite them not needing a kicker, him having a year of college left and not being the top kicker available.

-       After college he had a few NFL tryouts before ending up with the Als.

-       Due to the aforementioned not needing him, the Als ended up trading McKnight to the Esks for an inexplicable ransom: a 1^st (3^rd overall) and 4^th round pick and Derek Shiavone. I’m sure they would have thrown in Ricky Ray if they could have. Popp’s ridiculous drafting was somehow rewarded.

-       Despite paying an arm and leg for him, the Esks only dressed him for 3 games and near as I can remember the only time he saw the field was a weird series of events leading to a blocked FG

So that 5 draft picks, 3 teams and 2 trades for a guy yet to make a CFL field goal. It’s crazy. But he was a damn good kicker in college, good enough to draw NFL interest. For the bargain price we got him for he is definitely worth the chance. Could potentially be our starting kicker. That said the way his career has been going he’s more likely to end up traded for more picks.