Bombers are misguided for chasing pricey Muamba

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This article was published 29/09/2015 (3879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Saddled with a 4-9 record, it goes without saying the Winnipeg Blue Bombers need help.

They need a better running game. They need more consistent place-kicking. They need a better pass rush and a better run defence. And, good Lord, do they ever need a better offensive line — still.

But one thing the Bombers don’t need — perhaps the only thing they don’t need — is another linebacker on a team already enviably deep at the position.

With the addition of Ian Wild last week, the team is so deep in linebackers head coach Mike O’Shea mused Tuesday that he might yet have to unveil a never before seen front-seven formation just to get all his talented linebackers some playing time.

“We might play a 1-6,” grinned O’Shea. “Just like wasps, all going crazy.”

With so much depth, the coach is, even jokingly, considering rewriting the rules to accommodate it all, it says here adding yet another linebacker — even a very talented and Canadian one such as Henoc Muamba — might not be the best use of this team’s resources right now.

Muamba, of course, is still in the midst of his month-long — and increasingly bizarre — cross-Canada job fair. It’s a tour that has made stops in four CFL cities, and it was supposed to make a stop last Thursday in Winnipeg, where it all began for Muamba as a rookie in 2011.

The Bombers had booked Muamba a flight and a hotel room. There were also dinner reservations made for the team’s 2013 MVP at swanky 529 Wellington. And there was going to be a lunch meeting with the team’s community relations department, which was going to brief Muamba on off-field opportunities for him in Winnipeg.

But Muamba’s agent cancelled the visit the morning it was supposed to happen and it hasn’t been rescheduled, leaving the Bombers wondering what went wrong and if they fit into Muamba’s future plans.

What we know for sure is this: Muamba is asking for a signing bonus “well over” $100,000 and a contract that would pay him in excess of $250,000 per season.

That’s more than B.C. middle linebacker Solomon Elimimian makes, and he’s thought to be the CFL’s highest-paid defensive player.

Elimimian’s deal — signed last winter — is worth a combined total of $700,000 over three seasons, plus incentives.

To earn that payday, Elimimian did nothing less last year than break the CFL record for tackles in a season and become the first purely defensive player to be named the league’s MVP.

Muamba’s good. Very good, in fact. And he’s got one more Canadian passport than Elimimian has, which also adds to his value.

But Muamba’s never broken the league tackles record and he’s never been the league MVP and paying him more than Elimimian seems a dicey proposition, even if the Bombers were in need of another linebacker. And they aren’t.

Consider the present linebacker corps: Starting weak-side linebacker Khalil Bass is fourth in the league in tackles; starting middle linebacker Sam Hurl is a Canadian they like more with each passing week; Wild is a late NFL cut — and proven CFLer — at middle linebacker; Garrett Waggoner is a young Canadian for whom the Bombers gave up a first-round draft pick next year to select in this year’s supplemental draft; Graig Newman is yet another promising Canadian; Jesse Briggs is yet another promising Canadian…

The list goes on. Conventional wisdom in these matters is you load up on all the talent you can possibly get your hands on and then figure out where they’re all going to play. But the Bombers cannot afford to do that with Muamba, because of the huge price he is asking.

With Hurl making $140,000 a season and Wild also somewhere in that neighborhood, adding Muamba to the mix would mean the Bombers would have over a half-million dollars tied up at middle linebacker.

That’s crazy in a league with a $5-million salary cap. And it’s crazy in any league, since you can play only one middle linebacker at a time.

Muamba saved the Bombers the price of a good steak dinner — and maybe a whole lot more — last week. They should use the money they saved to address one of the many real and pressing needs they actually do have.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek