Steep learning curve for Bomber rookies

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This article was published 25/05/2016 (3489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rookie camps in the Canadian Football League are by no means a lengthy endeavour.

If football is a cruel mistress, then her macabre demeanour offers barely enough time for the team’s greenest players to prepare. Each of the roughly 50 players who step onto Investors Group Field today for the three-day rookie camp will be given six or so hours to sort it all out on the field, and many more off it, as they, perhaps more importantly, work on the game’s academic side.

Before they know it, they’ll be staring into the eyes of the men whose jobs they’re trying to snatch. Ready or not.

“You want to give them the best chance to compete, which is getting their legs under them for a couple of days, learn the systems and try to figure out the Canadian game, particularly for the defensive backs and the receivers, where it is so different relative to what they’re used to,” Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters said Tuesday.

It’s a daunting task, of course, and one magnified by the Bombers having won just 12 games in their last 36 tries, not having been to the post-season since 2011 and having just one .500 season since 2008.

Tack onto that an off-season splurge that dug deep into the coffers and a coach and a general manager with everything to prove, each in his third year directing the club, and you have yourself some lofty expectations that, quite simply, must be met. Go big or go home, as it were. Impress, or pack your bags.

Despite the realities of such a cutthroat game, rookie camp also brings with it a certain level of optimism. Walters has crafted his best team to date and thus given head coach Mike O’Shea a set of tools not seen around these parts in a while. Pressure, stress and expectations, he said, are just the “nature of the business.”

For Walters, this year isn’t any more exciting than the previous two he’s taken charge of.

“You go through an entire off-season of paperwork and draft stuff. It doesn’t feel like football,” Walters said. “But now that the players are starting to arrive, the coaches are all here and there’s more activity around here. It’s very exciting, regardless of what year (it is).”

Rookie camp is a time to evaluate, and not just what these players can do on the field either. Back in his first year at the helm of the Bombers, O’Shea said he evaluates everything, including if a guy “holds the door open for a lady.”

Perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek, but O’Shea is undoubtedly looking for guys who fit his mould, one that has been refined and tuned over the last two years.

Cohesion between coach and GM is the biggest change over the last year, according to the latter.

“The continuity with Mike and myself and the scouting department all on the same page,” he said. “I think you are going see at rookie camp, an increased level of talent, which again is directly based on the continuity of the staff growing together, figuring out what type of player Mike is looking for and seeing that (negotiation) list over the past couple years pay off.

“I think you’re going to see a improved quality of first-year player. Our offensive mini-camp allows these young guys on the offensive side of the ball to feel comfortable, a little bit ahead of the game and allow them to come in and compete at a better level with the veteran guys.”

Walters has identified a few areas he’d like to see a young player make his mark: a young receiver, a young American running back, a stud on the offensive line and a defensive back or two to combat the sometimes constant turnover in the secondary.

“Defensive end, opposite of Jamaal (Westerman), is probably the biggest one,” Walters said. “We’d sure like to see a young guy jump out over the next couple of days as a potential.”

Five freshmen bound to turn heads

Here’s a look at five players to watch at the Bombers’ rookie camp:

DE Trent Corney

He was Kyle Walters’ first pick in the 2016 CFL Draft and the last to sign a deal, doing so Tuesday morning, just hours before rookie training camp is set to begin. Regardless, the expectations levied on him are high. Some scouts figured he’d be drafted by an NFL team, and Corney has been described as freakish athlete. You can form your own opinions below, but Walters wants someone to step up opposite of Jamaal Westerman and Corney has a chance to do just that.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4fJHFCgQOc

 

OL Michael Couture

Couture may have to give way to Corney when it comes to bragging rights, but not by much. The 6-4, 276-pounder was taken one pick later by the Blue Bombers at No. 10. Couture comes from the same university as fellow Bombers OL Matthias Goossen, and will have every opportunity to snatch a starting spot over the next few weeks. His versatility will give Mike O’Shea and OL coach Bob Wylie much to ponder.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlAOF1m57-I

 

SB Solomon Patton

Patton’s collegiate record in the return game speaks for itself. At Florida, the 5-9 speedster set a team record for highest kick return average in a single season with 29.2 yards per return. During his four seasons in the Sunshine State, he grabbed 52 receptions for 635 yards and six touchdowns. He’ll also be fighting for a backup spot behind slotback Ryan Smith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKcYO1vXiW0

 

DB Johnny Patrick

Patrick comes to the Bombers after being drafted in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints. His college resumé at Louisville includes an All-Big East Conference first-team selection, and he has 36 NFL games under his belt, with five of those being starts. See Patrick in action.

 

 

REC Kris Adams

Besides being the third player signed by the Bombers with the last name Adams, the 6-3 athletic receiver with NFL experience will bid to resurrect his football career in Winnipeg. The former University of Texas at El Paso star averaged 18.5 yards per catch during his four-year college career. Adams hauled in 144 balls for 2,657 yards and has two catches for 26 yards in the NFL, both with the Indianapolis Colts. See Adams in action.

 

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck