Shaq Murray Lawrence

[Booch]

Seeing that B.C has released him. Now I'm thinking that he would be the perfect pick-up...National Back-up for Harris, plus can return kicks..not sure if he is injured or what, but surprised he was let go

[Mike]

I'm incredibly surprised he was let go, but I'd like to see him as soon as possible here. Thinking Saskatchewan might go after him too though.

[Mike]

Also, for no reason whatsoever ... here's a picture of SML being chased by JSK

[JuranBoldenRules]

Surprised nobody claimed him on waivers unless they all thought BC was bluffing.

[Booch]

Yeah shocked he slipped through...but he would help us game day with DI designation and allow us to get another impact defensive guy in there.

Also could come in on offence and allow Harris to swing out as a receiver and we wouldn't lose a beat. I hope Walters is on this 

[Mike]

Yeah, he would certainly take care of the need to even consider dressing a guy like Lankford.

[Booch]

yeah...totally. 

Really would open up our options for defensive substitution/rotational players, and would be a more than adequate in-game replacement along with Normand if HARRIS goes down, or is even just knicked up to avoid getting hurt more.

I was ticked in his draft year when he was available several times for us and we kept passing

I here TJ Thorpe has been added back to practice roster too today

[BBlink]

Wouldnt surprise me if we passed. The team seems to have the attitude that if Harris goes down we would change where we put a Canadian.

[Mike]

3 minutes ago, BBlink said:

Wouldnt surprise me if we passed. The team seems to have the attitude that if Harris goes down we would change where we put a Canadian.

Just seems like an opportunity to create flexibility. Not sure if Shaq is interested, but I feel like we should be interested in exploring this. It's a natural fit to our roster and while I get that we have the attitude right now that we would start an American if Harris got hurt, that's probably because our only option otherwise would be Normand.

[Booch]

Still be a smart pick-up even if we switched ratio to go import at rb if Harris couldn't go. 

But the option to rotate him and Normand in the spot and not affect the ratio would be better for team continuity...guess we shall see

[Brandon]

https://www.cfl.ca/players/shaquille-murray-lawrence/

Doesn't look like he had any success at RB....  the only reason to sign him is to put him at returner.

[BBlink]

Might be a good fit; I agree.  We are severely lacking in national offensive skilled players. Went through another draft without making it a priority...and yet somehow we've had a few guys fall into our lap despite that.

[Atomic]

42 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Surprised nobody claimed him on waivers unless they all thought BC was bluffing.

My understanding is that the CFL killed the waivers system when the newest CBA was signed

[rebusrankin]

Count me in for the sign him up group.

[SPuDS]

do have to wonder why BC would let him go tho.. thought he was relatively highly touted coming into the draft.  I don't see why we wouldn't take a shot at bringing him in for all of the above mentioned reasons.  he would be a good backup for a few spots (returner, RB/FB, teams in general)

[Mike]

Just now, SPuDS said:

do have to wonder why BC would let him go tho.. thought he was relatively highly touted coming into the draft.  I don't see why we wouldn't take a shot at bringing him in for all of the above mentioned reasons.  he would be a good backup for a few spots (returner, RB/FB, teams in general)

Fit is a big thing these days. Teams in the CFL have to do what is best for the players a lot of the time, if a guy isn't being used effectively or in some cases, at all then it's no big deal for the agent to phone up the team and say "hey, I represent 10% of the entire league and if you don't give my guy a release so he can go find a team that actually uses him, you're going to miss out on a lot of other talent"

It's certainly not that aggressive from what I understand, but teams and agents know it's in everyone's best interest to make sure the players are happy.

[Fatty Liver]

1 minute ago, SPuDS said:

do have to wonder why BC would let him go tho.. thought he was relatively highly touted coming into the draft.  I don't see why we wouldn't take a shot at bringing him in for all of the above mentioned reasons.  he would be a good backup for a few spots (returner, RB/FB, teams in general)

I think BC is so stacked with imports at the RB position that they don't see him as an option and have shifted their ratio inserts to other positions.

[SPuDS]

Just now, Mike said:

Fit is a big thing these days. Teams in the CFL have to do what is best for the players a lot of the time, if a guy isn't being used effectively or in some cases, at all then it's no big deal for the agent to phone up the team and say "hey, I represent 10% of the entire league and if you don't give my guy a release so he can go find a team that actually uses him, you're going to miss out on a lot of other talent"

It's certainly not that aggressive from what I understand, but teams and agents know it's in everyone's best interest to make sure the players are happy.

thats very true too.   If he felt he was going to get buried on the roster and not see any game time, maybe he did pipe up to his agent and it led to this.   sad state of affairs if true but I suppose thats the nature of the beast in a smaller league where the agents do have some pull across multiple teams..either way, their loss could be our gain... or someone's anyway.   wonder if Calgary is interested as well with Walters retiring..

[JuranBoldenRules]

I guess a question too is if he gets on our roster.  To me he'd have to take Normand's spot and to do that he'd have to be able to play that role.  Osh seems pretty set on having a crew of special teamers in that LB/DB body.

[Fatty Liver]

1 minute ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

I guess a question too is if he gets on our roster.  To me he'd have to take Normand's spot and to do that he'd have to be able to play that role.  Osh seems pretty set on having a crew of special teamers in that LB/DB body.

Good point and I don't believe he can block as well as Normand which is his primary role.

[SPuDS]

Just now, JuranBoldenRules said:

I guess a question too is if he gets on our roster.  To me he'd have to take Normand's spot and to do that he'd have to be able to play that role.  Osh seems pretty set on having a crew of special teamers in that LB/DB body.

never thought of that.. would be a shame to bump Normand due to roster management.  I don't know if Lawrence would be able to fill Normand's role either as a blocker/FB/TE.. is he more a prototypical RB and RB only?   and I agree with the LB/DB on the teams mentality.. He seems to like to stock up the cover and block teams with those types of bodies (or turn FBs into LBs lol) and frankly, I think its smart.  they are often more used to the bash and crash of the teams and are used to tackling and tracking players where as receivers,RBs,etc need a bit more coaching up to be really good at the ST stuff.  Not that im surprised but since Osh came on board, our teams have been pretty freakin' awesome.. if it ain't broke..

[Stickem]

Walters should get on it and at least kick the tires....a little more than he did with Bear Woods though....Seems like he could work here in more ways than one.

[Floyd]

I would ditch Lankford in a heartbeat for SML - even if he's just on the roster as our specialty return guy that means Fogg, Dressler, etc are all resting

 

[bearpants]

Murray-Lawrence would not be replacing Normand... they are completely different players with mostly different skill sets... so we can eliminate that thought immediately... though I would be interested in having him as a back-up RB and returner if possible...

[Atomic]

1 hour ago, bearpants said:

Murray-Lawrence would not be replacing Normand... they are completely different players with mostly different skill sets... so we can eliminate that thought immediately... though I would be interested in having him as a back-up RB and returner if possible...

The thinking is that Normand is the in-game backup RB (he is).  So if we want SML as backup RB on the roster it would be replacing Normand.

But that would assume that Miller or Rush could take over FB duties on offence.  Rush probably isn't ready but Miller could.  He's a converted DB/LB originally but he started getting some offensive reps in Edmonton last season.