The
Riders don’t play another preseason game for another week yet so we
don’t have a ton of new stuff to discuss other than the fact that we cut
everyone with the last name Williams (I’m sure Williams-Lambert only
got off on a technicality). Still the football-starved masses need
appeasing and I have a high need to have my opinions heard so let’s talk
football.
In no particular order here is what’s been on my mind this week:
- O-line remains my number one concern for this team but my primary focus is shifting. After a decent showing on Sunday, my faith in the starting 5 is on the rise. The current injuries to Bladek and St John have me worrying now more about depth. Those 2 are our Cdn OL depth… that’s it. Them being down is highlighting how thin we are there and how quickly things could go south during the season. The drop off from Vaughn to Cofield was noticeable on Sunday as well. I’m sure Bladek and St John will be fine come the regular season but odds are our depth will be tested at some point.
- Seems our RB battle is a showcase of former Ram RBs with Stacy and now Tre Mason. I do kinda wish we focused more on finding non former NFL RBs (it should be one of the easiest positons to recruit) though at least Mason is still relatively young
- I wish we didn’t have to wait another week to get a glimpse at our real defense. It has the potential to be a dominant group.
- When Trevor Harris went down last night, I’m sure many people’s first thought was “we should trade them Bridge”. What you really should be thinking is “Thank god we have a capable back-up!”
- One thing I’ve really noticed is that none of the new recruits seem to be getting a ton of hype. Clearly preseason hype doesn’t always predict success but usually there a couple names that really stand out in camp. I can’t tell if that means we have bad recruits of if guys are just solid but flying under the radar. It may take until the roster is set to answer that question. I do think we have some good players in camp, they just don’t seem to be getting a ton of hype.
OL a real problem spot. St John now out too, maybe a long time. Steele was practising on OL tnis week.
ReplyDeleteWith RBs, Jones seems to place a huge emphasis on blocking responsibility and making the proper read. That's likely why he's drawn to the NFL castoffs, who should in theory be more comfortable reading a play and making blocks than a younger recruit. There's also the factor of John Murphy's search for attention from NFL connections.
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