Training Camp 2018

[Booch]

some thoughts...

Firstly it appears a few guys have come to camp in better shape ..Harris looks leaner and faster..Poop as well looks more buff and a bit more lean...and still is so damn powerful. Faith too looks much better...Quicker and more agile...and in better game shape for CFL ball...he got knicked up in the one on ones but took turns in team session later so must be ok...3rd and 1.5...I dont see him as still a project...he has improved and is more expolive...i took time to study d-line a bit so more on that later...

Receivers..not gonna focus on the projected starters too much...is what it is but Demski actually impressed me somewhat...he's better than what i recall and if injury free i see him doing good things this year in a Lapo offence

White...cant see this guy not being on the gameday roster and taking significant first team reps...he is just plain good. He is what we use to call a QB enhancer as he can make any QB look good and has the ability to use his speed and fluidness and his uncanny ability to track a ball to make it look like the QB is always on the money..He is Dresslers replacement when that day comes...and if Dress gets hurt this year and misses significant games..he may have trouble getting his spot back...White is that good

Coney and Dye as well impressed..shifty and fast and catch the ball in stride and hit upfield in 5th gear in an instant. Washington has the potential to be an Adarius 2.0 sans the drops...didnt wow in practice too much today, but if used how I think they plan to, may be one of the guys who when lights are on just produce. Lankford to me just looks too unatural as a receiver..too much of a body catcher and has limited route running skills..Seeing as Demski and White can do returns...don't see a need for him to e rostered as a DI and see him as a camp cut

Canadian wise..Demski is solid and looks to be more north south this year and not the dance around side stepper he tended to be in Sask...if he keeps that up he will produce big...and avaoid injuries too...also him comin out of backfield with Harris on some sets is really going to cause trouble for defenses..speaking of Harris if they eventually do transition him to a slot role he will flourish...solid mitts on the guy

Simonese u can see the rust flaking away..i noticed from combine..to mini..to main camp. He is deceptively fast and caught everything thrown at him..and seems to be very fast when ball is in his hands...he could cause some mismatches on the edge and today showed a nice ability to get separation from the db. Him and Drew I see taking equal reps in the offence until one or the other separates and shows they are more of a game breaker...then the split of reps will be more one sided..Peterson too impressed..fast..good hands...decent route runner...we are going to be ok with National receivers if u ask me..even with 2 rookies more or less in the lineup...should be noted Tyler Henry actually didnt look out of place but as did Pierre but they may be victims of numbers game..though [Pierre offers use on ST's

Obviously Nichols is starter  looked good...no suprise, Ross tho...impressed....throws a good ball...can move around and i dont think will get flustered...u can see he sees the field well and actually looks through his progressions and finds the right guy. I think if he has to come in to a game we are gonna be all right,,,and actually better off than if we had Durant here..and his broken down passing now...Strevler is behind Ross at moment but thats more from bein a raw rookie and learning as he goes...can tell though he is a Mike Reilly threat to gain gobs of yards on the ground if he had too...

Dline guys on roster will be interesting to see who makes gameday. POOP looks to be primed for a big year..guys a beast...Jeffcoat has one end spoy I'm certain...Pretty sure Roh at the least is a DI..now it gets interesting...Nevis seemed to have more burst this year...but if Brandon Bryant shows well in pre-season..he (Nevis)may be in trouble and a TC casualty..Bryant is quick off the ball and has a lot of power to go with his quickness. Same with OPO...of nthe new comers Montgomery really stood out...had some clean wins in the one on ones and is so fast off the edge..and has great pursuit...lCasher as well...but of the 2...Montgomery is just better. Larry Webster is a bit more raw...but freakish athletic and can see him on PR as depth behind our 3 import starters...It wouldnt shock me if both OPO and Nevis get bumped off the roster...but gut says to start year only one will be cut..i hink it Nevis

Faith i think looked a lot better...and a guy who didnt look out of place was Marouf..has some power and quickness and actually some pretty decent technique..he is way more athletic and versatile than Thomas and I can see why the team didnt ring him back...if Marouf is replacing Thomas on roster...we are better for it

DB's are gonna be Randle..Loffler..for sure...Alexander looks good this spring...u can tell he understands the game much better and doesnt have to think now...just react..plus he has nice size...had a nice pick today too...Walker was steady and always involved...and looked more polished...and at only 22 this yr his upside is huge.

a guy who stood out to me was Mohamad SEISAY...he got hurt mid practice and was missing for a while but i seen him at the end..not sure how bad, but he did some things that made me notice..as did Gaitor...

I think a combo of Fenner..Leggett..Randle..Alexander..Gaitor..Loffler will be our game day guys in some capacity...and with addition of Bighill who is excellent in coverage too our defense is going to be pretty stingy.

Linebacking is tough to gauge in camps like this

[kelownabomberfan]

 

[wbbfan]

4 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

We only have Corney and Faith as backup DL. That gives us only 6 on the roster. Teams usually use 7.

We used 7 when we did a heavy rotation on the DL and hadnt found our starters. I dont think that is the case this year. Teams carry 6 ol for 5 spots. Also we have some larger LBers that play DE in a pinch. If we still had jake thomas id be all in favor of an extra DL. Marouf may become the extra DL who can back up on the OL as well. Corney might be big enough to be the 4th DT, and thomas miles has the size to back up at end as well. 

[M.O.A.B.]

Looks like whether they like it or not, Walters/O'Shea will be making some hard cuts this year. Hoping they hide some guys on the IR. 

[Booch]

yeah...hate to lose some of guys brought up...so hopefully we pull a Sask and use the 1 game and 6 game as an extended roster and evaluation pool ...

[JuranBoldenRules]

4 hours ago, wbbfan said:

We used 7 when we did a heavy rotation on the DL and hadnt found our starters. I dont think that is the case this year. Teams carry 6 ol for 5 spots. Also we have some larger LBers that play DE in a pinch. If we still had jake thomas id be all in favor of an extra DL. Marouf may become the extra DL who can back up on the OL as well. Corney might be big enough to be the 4th DT, and thomas miles has the size to back up at end as well. 

Our best defensive games last season were with 7 DL.  Struggled huge against the run with 6 dressed.  We have lots of NI DB’s and LB’s who can fill in.  If we had one DI to use on D I’d use it on a DL.

[Floyd]

I'd really like to see Poop/Nevis as our main DTs...  Jeffcoat/Okpo/Roh/Corney all rotating on the outside to keep that pressure fresh...

I think there will be a huge difference in the interior DL with Bighill as the secondary line of D rather than Hurl... 

[Blueandgold]

19 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

The only Imports on the offence are Nichols, Bryant, Hardrick, Dressler, Adams and Bowman.  Which one is Flanders supposed to replace as a D.I.?  Going with two Natl. receivers pretty much sealed Flanders fate imo, they're better off going with an extra Import receiver as the D.I. in preparation of taking over from Dressler or Bowman next year.

So we’re going to rotate receivers? We’re not going to sit Adams/Dressler/Bowman to get a rookie receiver in the game. 

Flanders will play. The Harris/Flanders backfield package was one of our most dangerous weapons last year. I don’t see them giving that up. Not to mention Flanders has proved he’s an adequate starting receiver. 

[M.O.A.B.]

7 hours ago, Floyd said:

I'd really like to see Poop/Nevis as our main DTs...  Jeffcoat/Okpo/Roh/Corney all rotating on the outside to keep that pressure fresh...

I think there will be a huge difference in the interior DL with Bighill as the secondary line of D rather than Hurl... 

It will definitely gonna be an all-Int DL starters. I won't be surprised if Brandin Bryant will be starting beside Poop though. 

[TBURGESS]

1 hour ago, Blueandgold said:

So we’re going to rotate receivers? We’re not going to sit Adams/Dressler/Bowman to get a rookie receiver in the game. 

Flanders will play. The Harris/Flanders backfield package was one of our most dangerous weapons last year. I don’t see them giving that up. Not to mention Flanders has proved he’s an adequate starting receiver. 

To get Flanders in the game, we have sit one of Adams/Dressler/Bowman. As a DI, he has to take an import off and it won't be our QB or an OL.

[Booch]

Agreed....from what I observed Bryant seemed to have what it takes to make Nevis expendable....He may start out on PR but I bet by game 4 or 5 he will be on the roster

[Atomic]

2 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

To get Flanders in the game, we have sit one of Adams/Dressler/Bowman. As a DI, he has to take an import off and it won't be our QB or an OL.

So what's wrong with that?  It's nice to work in a 2 back set every now and then.

[Colin Unger]

21 minutes ago, Atomic said:

So what's wrong with that?  It's nice to work in a 2 back set every now and then.

Yeah I don't see it being a big deal. When we run a two back set one receiver has to go off. Might as well be one of the imports. Doesn't make that much of a difference since we have some promising Canadian receivers.

[Jesse]

14 minutes ago, Atomic said:

So what's wrong with that?  It's nice to work in a 2 back set every now and then.

Not to mention Dress and Bowman are getting pretty old. Why not sit them for a down or a series now and then? Throw some fresh legs against a tired DB late in the game? It's not like they're going to play every down all year.

[TBURGESS]

Were not going to sit any of Bowman, Adams or Dressler to get a rookie import receiver/returner into the game, but it's no problem to sit them to get Flanders into the game to run a 2 back set that we can run with Lafrance or Demski without taking one of the big 3 off of the field. That doesn't pass the sniff test.

[Atomic]

15 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

Were not going to sit any of Bowman, Adams or Dressler to get a rookie import receiver/returner into the game, but it's no problem to sit them to get Flanders into the game to run a 2 back set that we can run with Lafrance or Demski without taking one of the big 3 off of the field. That doesn't pass the sniff test.

Two different circumstances.  Bringing in a rookie receiver and sitting one of the vets gives you nothing in terms of different formations or a higher skill level, while bringing in Flanders instead of Lafrance gives you a clear advantage.

But you make a good point about Demski.  If anyone is filling the role Flanders played towards the end of last season, it would be him.  I am curious to see what happens.

[TBURGESS]

9 minutes ago, Atomic said:

Two different circumstances.  Bringing in a rookie receiver and sitting one of the vets gives you nothing in terms of different formations or a higher skill level, while bringing in Flanders instead of Lafrance gives you a clear advantage.

But you make a good point about Demski.  If anyone is filling the role Flanders played towards the end of last season, it would be him.  I am curious to see what happens.

A rookie receiver could give one of the big 3 a rest during the game. He could also be the main returner so we would get double duty from 1 DI. I'd rather backup an import receiver with another import receiver then rely on 3 NI receivers, or a 2 back set, if one of the imports gets injured and they've all had injury history over the last few years.

[Fatty Liver]

33 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

A rookie receiver could give one of the big 3 a rest during the game. He could also be the main returner so we would get double duty from 1 DI. I'd rather backup an import receiver with another import receiver then rely on 3 NI receivers, or a 2 back set, if one of the imports gets injured and they've all had injury history over the last few years.

One encouraging prospect for the future is that Simonise or Petermann may eventually be able to fill in for an Import receiver as a game day replacement with little to no drop off, freeing up a D.I. position.

[Blueandgold]

4 hours ago, TBURGESS said:

To get Flanders in the game, we have sit one of Adams/Dressler/Bowman. As a DI, he has to take an import off and it won't be our QB or an OL.

Yes, and quite often last year Flanders replaced Weston Dressler or Clarence Denmark. He can very easily replace Dressler or Bowman on occasion. 

We also gave Flanders a nice contract extension, we didn’t do it so he could ride the pine. We realized last year that our O is much more efficient with the added and unique dimension that Flanders brings to the table. 

I don’t see a guy like Demski having the abilities to replace Flanders. Demski will bring his own unique abilities to the table if he plays to his potential, but he’s a different player than Flanders. There’s no reason to think that Flanders isn’t a shoo in to be on the active roster.

The key point being missed here is that Flanders could conceivably be better than any new import receivers we have. Flanders did well as a starting receiver last year. 

Edited May 22, 2018 by Blueandgold

[TBURGESS]

11 minutes ago, Blueandgold said:

The key point being missed here is that Flanders could conceivably be better than any new import receivers we have. Flanders did well as a starting receiver last year. 

The key points are:

Which DI on defence do you sit to get Flanders on the field? A DE (Roh?), LB(Wild?) or DB/Returner(Fogg?)?

Is it better to use a DI on a backup receiver/returner or Flanders who isn't a returner IMO?

Can LaFrance and/or Demski do Flanders job well enough so we don't have to us a DI on Flanders?

[Jpan85]

 

[Engelwood]

2 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

 

Guessing Marouf 's injury is bad and will miss some time. Not sad to see JT back though.

[Atomic]

4 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

The key points are:

Which DI on defence do you sit to get Flanders on the field? A DE (Roh?), LB(Wild?) or DB/Returner(Fogg?)?

Is it better to use a DI on a backup receiver/returner or Flanders who isn't a returner IMO?

Can LaFrance and/or Demski do Flanders job well enough so we don't have to us a DI on Flanders?

Linebacker, IMO, is the place we don't need to use a DI.

[TBURGESS]

@EdTaitWFC - Canadian DT Ian Marouf was just carted off the field with an injury.

Gotta suspect the two things have something to do with each other.

[TBURGESS]

Just now, Atomic said:

Linebacker, IMO, is the place we don't need to use a DI.

Agree to disagree, but fair enough.