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While
the fans (and players) wait for the new CBA to be signed and whatever Los CFL
Mexicano turns into, the big CFL news over the past week has been the mass
exodus of players heading south. Now this is nothing new, it happens every
year. The top CFL players (and some who are far from it) get NFL interest and
many end up signing a deal. It just
seems like this year there are more than usual. By my math (which is questionable
at best so please don’t audit me) 9 CFL players signed in the NFL last year.
This year 9 have already signed (10 if you include Eguavoen who we released to
sign somewhere that has yet to be made official). And I expect more signings
before its all said and done.
It’s
a double edged sword for the CFL, the good news is that it means the talent
level in the CFL is really good (many of us have know this for a while). Also
the number of NFL deals should help attract other NFL hopefuls north. The bad
news is that some of our best players will be gone for some or all of next season.
The other good news though is that most of NFL signings are coming from the
Stampeders. F&%& the Stamps (deep down I know that Hufnagel will find a
way to carry on as if nothing happened but let me have this momentary joy for
now).
Most
of the signings so far have not been surprising. Eguavoen and Thurman are elite
level LBs. Duke Williams is a talented receiver with NFL size. Ty Long has
elite level diving skills. One name that surprised the hell out of me was
Tevaughn Campbell. Look I get that he has top level speed which is likely what
attracted NFL interest but I have yet to really see that he knows what to do
with it. I mean as recently as last year he intercepted a pass and proceeded to
give up a safety. As a U of R alumni I wish him well but colour me skeptical on
this one.
One
person who is most likely not headed south is Chris Jones. A report surfaced
last week from Jason La Canfora that Chris Jones had been identified as a
person of interest in 2 head coach searches… and you all know that Rider fans
are known for dealing rationally with rumours. The reality is that while Jones may
appear on a list of 10-20 people of interest, he has yet to be and is unlikely to
be interviewed. The fact that he is on NFL radars may be worth monitoring in
future years but for 2019 I think its much ado about nothing. Do you honestly
think that an NFL team would hire a head coach with zero NFL experience and
only position coach experience in college almost 20 years ago? People will draw
the comparison to Trestman but he had an extensive NFL resume (including being
a coordinator) prior to coming north. So while I might be jinxing things by
doing this, I’m going to go ahead a say that Jones is safe.
NFL Watch:
LB
Sam Eguavoen (Ssk) – will be signing shortly with someone
DL
Jake Ceresna (Edm) – signed with NY Giants
WR
Marken Michel (Cal) – signed with Philadelphia
DL
James Vaughters (Cal) – signed with Chicago
DB
Tevaughn Campbell (Mtl) – signed with NY Jets
WR
Diontae Spencer (Ott) – signed with Pittsburgh
WR
Duke Williams (Edm) – signed with Buffalo
LB
Jameer Thurman (Cal) – signed with Chicago
K
Ty Long (BC) – signed with LA Chargers
DB
Mercy Maston (Edm) - signed with
Philadelphia
OL
Dakota Shepley – tryout with Chicago, Indianapolis
DL
Avery Ellis (Ott) – tryout with Detroit
CFL Ins and Outs
Saskatchewan
Out: WR
Kenny Shaw (released)
3 comments:
You're absolutely right about Jones. Outside of Trestman & Levy, it hasn't happened much. Hugh Campbell won a fistful of Cups & got on briefly due to his connection with Moon. I've seen a couple of lists published of top dozen candidates & Jones isn't there. Very hard to sell a coach with no big college or NFL experience to the old boys club down south, never mind the rabid fan base. You can bring coaches from high school to the CFL, if US trained, more easily than iniversity coaches in Canada. The high school players in states like Texas are like watching mini NFL players. Whole different ball game. As for Paul Jones, great coup. The only reservation I have about him is he stays close to home in the Southeast. If a QB comes from there, fine. But in Edmonton, Ray, Maas & Nichols weren't found by Jones. Guys like LeFors, who comes from PJ's neck of the woods, were. Still, he has a well deserved rep for finding talent. So who leaves next? Just changed the deck chairs - stilll need to cut some football ops.
Agree that Paul Jones was a nice snag. Just you mentioning LeFors made me shudder. Not sure if more cuts are needed. I think C Jones having 8 roles helps us be able to keep guys like o'day and p jones
True re: all Jones' positions. But that has its own set of problems. Guys like Buono & Barker in recent years said it's difficult in football now to do more than one job properly & they were talking about GM/coach. Your & mine favorite coach Maas gave up his OC position to Walch in year 2 to concentrate on HC & had 12 wins. Lost Walch & a pre-season GC favorite missed the playoffs. Not to say that was the only reason. It's worried me in the Jones era that there is one big voice who carries a handful of big sticks in the room. It has been obvious from the start he'll build the defence at the expense of the offence, the misguided Carter experiment among others being the most blatant example. Carter & Bridge were 2 guys completely misused last year. Everyone knew Bridge's faults when he was signed. If the game plan was not let him thrown beyond 2 yards why sign him? I would like to see Bridge in a backup role in Calgary who has had a Cdn QB & would take the time to develop him. I hate the Stamps but would be interested to see what Bridge could do in that environment.
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