Bombers hogs hit by injury, swine flu

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This article was published 06/06/2015 (4008 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With just three days to go until their first pre-season game – and just three weeks to go until they open their regular season – the highly-touted, new Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive line are doing a lot more spectating than practising.

Just one of the five projected starters on the Bombers offensive line this year was actually practising Saturday – centre Dominic Picard – with the rest either sick or injured.

The latest offensive lineman to join Bombers sick bay was left guard Chris Greaves, who called in sick on Saturday. Greaves joined left tackle Stanley Bryant, right tackle Marc Dile and right guard Patrick Neufeld, who’ve all missed varying amounts of practice this week with injury and were all absent yet again on Saturday.

The good news is that none of the O-linemen is seriously injured. All are listed day-to-day and expected to be back on the field long before the Bombers open their regular season June 27 in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

But an O-line with as many new players as Winnipeg’s needs time together if it’s going to morph into the seamless unit the Bombers are hoping it will become – and that’s not going to happen if the players aren’t practicing together.

“I’m not concerned with that continuity – yet,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said Saturday after the conclusion of a rain-soaked Day 7 of training camp. “Eventually we need to get those guys in and working together. But right now it’s a matter of getting a couple guys healthy and we’ll be fine.

“It’s a great opportunity to evaluate some of the other guys too.”

The “other guys” on Saturday looked like this: non-import rookie Sukh Chungh at right guard; non-import second-year lineman Matthias Goossen at left guard; and veteran imports Jace Daniels and Devin Tyler at right and left tackles respectively.

At least 12 players didn’t practise at all on Saturday and that list grew to 13 when Troy Stoudermire – who’s had an impressive camp, working out on both sides of the ball as he did in college – left practice early with a hand injury.

“He banged his hand going across the middle – they bumped into each other,” O’Shea explained. “We’ll have to see. Later today, we’ll find out if there’s any issues with it or not.”

Among the others missing practice on Saturday: receivers Nick Moore, Rory Kohlert and Addison Richards; defensive backs Bruce Johnson and Demond Washington; linebackers Graig Newman and Dan West; and defensive lineman Sammy Brown.

The Bombers spent a large amount of time on Saturday practising special teams. Speedy rookie receiver Jhomo Gordon, who’s been burning defensive backs all camp long, got a lot of reps as a kickoff returner and is expected to see a lot of action on Tuesday, when the Bombers open their pre-season schedule at Varsity Stadium in Toronto against the Argonauts.

O’Shea said Tuesday’s pre-season tilt will go a long way to answering the question on everyone’s mind this offseason — what effect is a new rule forbidding all contact between receiver and defender beyond five yards from the line of scrimmage going to have?

“What everybody around the league and the fans will be looking to see is the illegal contact. Let’s see how that’s going to change the game,” said O’Shea.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek