Well, there are a couple of different threads for sports other than the NFL on this forum so a Canadian Football League Thread would make sense here. Where to begin- Toronto Argonauts News: -New ownership BC Lions owner Braley purchased a share of the Argos. -Cut Qb's Reaves, Pickett and Joseph with the rumor being Argos interest in BC's Jarrius Jackson or Buck Pearce. -Signed ex Redskins DE Alex Buzzbee of whom AdamCaplann mentioned his being highly thought of in the NFL until a Achilles injury. -Jonathon Brown is likely to retire, or so I've heard. -Signed Willie Middlebrooks -Signed Byron Parker -Lost Jason Medlock to the NFL Winnipeg Blue Bombers- Cut Qb Mike Bishop -Signed QB Jyles -Resigned Adarious Bowman Montreal Alouettes- Signed 11 of 12 FA's, losing Karon Williams to BC Lost Larry Taylor and SJ Green to the NFL Hamilton Tigercats- -Signed Will Poole Sandro DeAngelis Jason Jimenez Jason Shivers -Waived Dan Goodspeed Out West: BC Lions- Signed Karon Williams Derrick Armstrong Lost: Ricky Foley Rolly Lumbala Martell Mallet Ryan Grice Mullen Saskatchawan Roughriders Signed- DB James Patrick De De Dorsey NFL/Waived: Stevie Baggs John Chick Rey Williams Well, that is a start, if there is some interest in making this a running thread with additional information then spending the time adding Calgary and Edmonton's complete transactions. The CFL Draft: -48 draft picks overall -unlike the NFL Combine the CFL Combine or Evaluation Camp is done in a single day. -the CFL draft has dual purposes, to acquire talent, and to ensure each team can meet it's mandated 21 Canadians on each CFL team's roster the top CFL prospects in the 2010 CFL draft can be found: http://www.ridleyscouting.com/index.html Draft order: 1. Toronto Argonauts 2. Winnipeg Blue Bombers 3. BC Lions 4. Saskatchewan Roughriders 5. Calgary Stampeders 6. Saskatchawan Roughriders 7. Montreal Allouettes the Hamilton Tiger Cats have forfeited their #1 pick for 2010. This is year's Draft features two Lb's of NFL quality, Shamori Williams and Cory Greenwood both are 4.5/4.6 235pds plus types. Feel free to add to the thread, have fun after all of the nonsense that has been spouted about the quality of CFL players and talent, here is a ESPN article entitled "Why CFL players are heading to the NFL": http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/14351/why-cfl-players-head-to-nfl-now
A couple of reasons, they start sooner (July) and I've spent two years watching CFL highlight reels on youtube so I've become a fan.
Not particularly, their season starts in early July, the NFL doesn't begin until September, and tbh there was/is a ton of misconceptions about the CFL on the part of NFL fans.
Tackles average over 300 pds, that is one of the misconceptions, CFLers are not 6'0 250 pd guys with black glasses underneath their helmets who run 5.2's.
That is true, but keep in mind the CFL field is wider and they place a premium on quickness outside the hashmarks, there are several 6'2 or larger Wr who work the middle of the field. In the CFL, quickness is at a premium in skill position players as well as in DT's, a CFL DT is more likely 270ish. To add...they play on Friday Nights...if one is already set up to watch streaming games it is no stretch to watch the CFL.
Kent Ridley of Ridley Scouting.com has the top offensive players in this yr's draft up: http://www.cfl.ca/article/prospect-analysis-a-look-at-the-offence
Have no idea rafi. Thought this would be of interest on a Dolphins board: Apparently they will look at 100 players from the South Florida area, as many as 100, and invite 3 to 5 to Training Camp. SFlorida has tons of athletes and it would be cool if some guys made it.
Pardon me while I work out my CFL infatuation: Phillip Hunt, ex Houston Cougar has landed in the CFL: I liked him coming out in 09, he had 3 sacks in Winnipeg's final five games, this cat led the NCAA in sacks in 09 but was a step slow at the 09 Combine and was cut by Cleveland. My man John Fletcher has shot if Phil Hunt can make it in the CFL, heck Hunt's problem was he was a bit weak with 14 reps at his pro day, if Hunt can make it in the CFL cats like Austen Lane, Brandon Lang and Eric Moncur can as well. Additional tryout dates: Love the 100 buck fee, a cat has to be serious to tryout and it saves wasting the staff's time with some joker off of the street.
Well allow me to add some further content via RidleyScouting's Ken Rildley (twitter addy http://twitter.com/RidleyScouting) http://www.cfl.ca/article/prospect-analysis-a-look-at-the-defence Shomari Williams youtube: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj76bSlKiSo&feature=related"]YouTube- Shomari Williams 2010 CFL Draft Prospect University of Houston Highlight Tape[/ame] the CFL doesn't have a Combine week, they have a 3 day even that this year will be held on March 12-14th. One of the cooler things about the CFL is...access...literally if one is interested in the CFL you can chat with the CFL Commish, a player, a scout, the top prospects, unlike the NFL..the CFL is open source. Cut down day is soon and at least one starting Qb will most likely be released in Buck Pearce of BC, mostly do to the one time NFL wunderprospect Casey Printers presence last yr...Printers can ball. Saskatchewan lost two really good DE's to the NFL in Stevie Baggs and John chick, both of whom I think have an excellent chance of making rosters with the Colts and Cardinals, but they just signed CFL All Star (no pro bowl in the CFL) Dan Goodspeed a left tackle.. As for the CFL itself how the league works...they play 4-3 defenses..and pay far more attention to Special Teams than the NFL does, I've heard the perfect CFL play described as:
Alrighty: -Mark Trestman won CFL coach of the year honors in the CFL, he was heavily rumored to be in line for the Bills and Raiders Head Coaching jobs. -Free Scouting report on the players available in the CFL draft: http://ridleyscouting.com/2010 player ratings.pdf Imho at least 2 of the top 15 picks can play in the NFL someday, Shomari Williams and Chima Ihekwoaba http://www.jessicaridley.com/..why not?
Corey Watson vid: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEkPE1MwWr4"]YouTube- CORY WATSON | CFL PROSPECT draft 2010[/ame] And Akeem Foster: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWxjCrjjo50&feature=related"]YouTube- Akeem Foster 2009 highlights[/ame] Marc Trestman wins CFL Coach of the Year: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Trestman+coach/2648432/story.html CFL is a different brand of football, "but" the basics that Parcell's laid out, the fact you need a Qb,LT,Cb and DE/passrusher remains the same, though in the Canadian game Safety maybe is more important than Cb.
Well, the games are streamed online like NFL games are, which makes things much much easier. I'd like to have this thread cover the 2010 CFL season, ECamp is this upcoming weekend with the Draft soon to follow which for me is the kickoff for the CFL year.
Argos interested in ex Dolphin Hamdan http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Toronto/2010/03/04/13118316.html Well, the Argos have been one of the more unstable teams, so going for Hamden is no surprise but he has to learn the CFL game on the fly, which imho means another terrible yr in Argoland.
Pretty much, they are always pulling stunts instead of just building a Franchise, I think they will draft Eppele, but with no CFL Qb, they won't do very much this yr.
They cut the only CFL Qb's they had. Kerry Joseph goes from winning the Grey Cup in Saskatchewan one year, to being completely inept the next in Toronto. They should draft Eppele, but it's the Argos, so who really knows.
Yep, and they cut Pickett as well, AND shed the good players from their surprisingly good Defense, guys like Will Poole. Then, Braley had to buy a share of the team. Despite it all, the Grey Cup had it's highest rating..ever...last yr, this with the largest Province basically stuck with a basket case of a franchise. I linked to Ridley Scouting's Top 25 on the previous page in ,pdf form, it is sort of hard to wrap one's head around the idea that they draft players who are still playing college football, 3 of the top 10, Bulcke, Bender, and one other cat can't play until 2011. What is really funny to me is this idea among NFL fans that CFL Olineman are 6'0, 260 pd (or 125 kilo) unathletic lumps.. 1 John Bender OL Nevada 2 Cory Greenwood LB Concordia 3 Danny Watkins OT Baylor 4 Shomari Williams LB Queen's 5 J'Michael Deane OL Michigan St. 6 Cory Watson WR Concordia 7 Rob Maver K/P Guelph 8 Joash Gesse LB Montreal 9 Akeem Foster WR St. FX 10 Brian Bulcke DL Stanford Bender is 6'8 320, Watkins is 6'4 310 J'Michael Dean is 6'5 312, and Maver does not belong ranked that highly.. http://cfl.ca/page/cfl_scouting_december_2009 Here is the Ridley Scouting mock draft: http://www.ridleyscouting.com/ The real geniuses of the CFL though, they can sniff out high quality NCAA prospects, guys who maybe washed out of a NFL camp, or went undrafted altogether, but who in fact are top athletes.. The best I've read of doing so is Richard Wade, he put three straight DE's into the NFL, and now is running heard in Hamilton, and no surprise, the TiCats are on the rebound. Wally Buono and Staff is really good at sniffing talent out. As an aside, I really like the cut of Buono's jig, he is the first and only CFL HC/GM to have a twitter account...and he tweeted that he was having lunch with important members of the BC Lions Organization...the Water Boys..that would NEVER happen in the NFL.
My Leos with a nice resigning: dude is a mystery, he was a red hot prospect for a CFL=NFL move, but then just flammed out, went back the CFL, was a non factor, wound up back in BC and was a world beater to end the season. BC is my CFL West Squad..really like Winnipeg in the East..I was a huge fan of Phil Hunt in Draft 09, besides I need an East team as those 11pm East Coast kickoffs are too late into the evening.
Winnipeg will be back in the West where they belong in a year or two. Once Ottawa (where I live) get their team back (which is pretty much a done deal), and maybe one more team is added in Quebec City or Halifax.
Imho the CFL should be a 10 team league, but after the failed two Roughrider experiment, not sure were they go from there tbh pigskinguy. I can see Ottawa having a team, but Nova Scotia? Would there be a fan base there? I was sorta under the impression that the Maritimes region was lightly populated? And with Printers re-upping, Buck Pearce is ceratinly on the bubble, the Argos claim they aren't interested and Buck has proven to be really fragile.
AL's sign three, Walls was a good DE: Of all the talk about Tebow, imho he would be best served heading to Montreal to polish his game under Mark Trestman, whom he has already been working with in the predraft period.
BC released Buck Pierce: Casey Printers takes his place, sadly for BP he just was knicked up to much and more than likely needs shoulder surgery as well, at 300k, the Leos just did not wish to afford him. Leaving Printers...who is sort of the CFL version of Mike Vick talent wise, he can run, he can throw, he can create plays out of nothing, but he is also liable to pull himself out of a game... And the Argos signed 3rd string Qb Dalton Bell...my goodness, they had better land Hamdan or it will be a really long yr in Toronto..
Argos land Ex Dolphin Hamdan They had to, irrc, Hamdan played in every pro league except for the UFL, he was a mobile Qb with a decent arm but that is all I recall about his time in Miami.
Michael Peltz's 2nd rd of his mock draft: http://www.cfldaily.com/PeltzMock2.html Buono passing on Ihekwoaba for Bulcke is not driven by BPA, Bulcke is more than likely a CFLer for his career, Ihekwoaba could easily head to the NFL if he pans out. I could see it if Buono wants to break up the string of 3 straight RDE's heading to the big NFL contracts, but as a player pro move, it is shakey to say the least. Not to mention, if BC skips Ihekwoaba, they should at least take Joash Gesse as the Lb cupboard is bare.
Well, this sucks: Shomari Williams is represented by none other than...Drew Rosenhaus.. blac33 Back in the great city of Toronto! Chilling in a 5 star hotel, shout out to @CFLsuperagent the @RosenhausSports of Canada http://twitter.com/CFLsuperagent http://twitter.com/RosenhausSports If Drew R is sniffing around a ex Houston Cougar who went up to Canada, his native land, to "become a teacher" and apply for the CFL draft, you just know whomever drafts him will not even have 2yrs out of him,
The new team in Ottawa is pretty much a done deal. And the new ownership group is the best group this city has seen since the late 70's. I think Quebec City would be better than the Maritimes, but I think a team based in Halifax would probably do well.
TBH, after the attempts at US expansion and the dual Calgary Franchises, I'd prefer if they let most teams go into the positive side of the ledger before making anymore bold moves. Chatting with some CFL league types, the league could also use Stadium Upgrades such as Bubbles..just what I've heard Bro. BTW..Argos are now going after (Mrs) Cleo Lemon...unbelievable to me, Barker is slumming his way through ex Dolphins Qb's.
This cat is a NFL player 3 or 4 yrs from now: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYqIkgfzH98"]YouTube- Chima Ihekwoaba Defensive End Wilfrid Laurier University[/ame] A Jr who is still raw, I'd love for BC to pick him up to learn the game behind Brent Johnson and Kiron Williams, the dude has measurables of: 42 inch vertical leap 10ft broad jump 4.37 20yd shuttle At 6'3 260. Waiting on a 40 time and bench press.
Two FCL Ecamp records broken today -Mike Montoya benched 225 40 times breaking the previous record of 33 -Steven Turner had a 43 inch vertical leap: http://www.cfl.ca/article/turner-tops-e-camp-tables-on-saturday 43.5 for BC's Jamall Lee, who is primed to have a breakout season in BC with Martell Mallet gone to Philly and Casey Printers at Qb the Leos offense looks like it should be explosive. Funny thing about Turner is that he was not considered a great prospect going into ECamp, which speaks to the quality of CFL athletes.
Turner set a new Ecamp record in the 40yd dash: Granted the NFL combine record is 4.19 IIRC, but two yrs in a row, the 40yd dash time record has been broken, the CFL is far smaller than the NFL however the quality of Athlete competiting has gone upwards over the last 4yrs or so. My boy Ihekwoaba ran a 4.78, here are the shuttle and Vertical leap totals for the leaders at the moment: Shuttle: Eddie Steele is having a great ecamp placing top 5 in every drill.
40yd dash leaders: A couple of things jump out here for me. -Steve Turner is fast, but not explosive, check out Cory Greenwood's splits, he is just as fast as Turner in the first 20 yds. -Mike Montoya is another prospect, similar to Edddie Steele, who is having a great Ecamp, top 5 in the 40, #1 in the bench press, he wasn't an afterthought coming into the Ecamp.
Argos sign a Canadian Qb.. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Toronto/2010/03/16/13244066-qmi.html Argos at it again? Sometimes I think they just have to try gimmicks. Not that Brannagan cannot play Qb, more that the first thing the Argos really need is to build a solid football team and of course stem the bleeding ink on the balance sheet. The CFL draft process is a world of it's own...that is all I can say about it, the CFL GM is a sort of mix of College AD, Pro GM, and Negotiator..
Good article about ECamp bt D Forde http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=314221 Eppelle looks the part, but Reinders has huge upside as a fmr BBall player who has only been in the game for 3 yrs. Funny, same beef down in the NFL, if you aren't going to participate, then do not use up a spot for someone who would participate. Those three plus Cb Tauren Allen are possibly the best football players in this draft, the one caution is Shomari Williams and his Agent meet Drew Rosenhaus in Tornto prior to Ecamp, so whomever drafts him needs to plan around having Shomari for 2 yrs...at best..and that depends on whether or not there is a NFL strike in 2011.
