Five story lines to keep an eye on heading into Bombers pre-season finale

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This article was published 14/06/2017 (3037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some have already been sent adrift, with more expected to be gone by the end of the weekend. Only a few days remain before Saturday night’s official roster deadline, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, along with all eight other teams in the CFL, must trim their lineup down to size in time for the start of the regular season.

That makes today’s pre-season finale against the Edmonton Eskimos at Investors Group Field the last chance for newcomers to prove their deserving of a spot on the team. It’s also the last look the coaches will get in finalizing which players have done enough to stick around.

“You’ve got a pretty good picture right now,” Bombers coach Mike O’Shea said following walk-through Wednesday. “What you’re hoping for is that guys really jump off the page in terms of playmaking ability, show something that is going to win games for you at some point in the season.”

With that, here are five storylines to keep an eye on for tonight’s game:

1) The Bombers released 11 players in the days following last week’s pre-season opener in Regina – a 25-25 tie with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They still have a ways to go, however, with Winnipeg needing to cut dozens more to reach the league-mandated 46-player roster (plus a 10-man practice team) by 9 p.m. on Saturday.

With more starters expected to play tonight — and for longer stretches of the game than they did Saturday against the Riders, those still in need of convincing the coaching staff they can perform at this level will have to do so with limited reps. But that doesn’t mean the veterans are off the hook — a message that was delivered Monday with the release of defensive back Terence Frederick, who started nine games at cornerback for the Bombers last season and had lined up with the first-team defence all through training camp.

“You never know what’s going on in the front office. So, the only thing you can really do is come out here and compete every day and make plays,” halfback T.J. Heath said. “You can’t ever get complacent in this business. We’re definitely going to miss T-Fred but I think it’s a lesson for all of us.”

Of the 24 projected starters this season, only two aren’t likely to play against the Eskimos: linebacker Maurice Leggett, who has been out since Day 1 of camp with a lower-body injury and halfback Bruce Johnson, who remains a game-time decision after an injury forced him to leave Tuesday’s practice.

2) Indeed, everyone will be under a microscope come Thursday but there are two new faces worth keeping an eye on in this one — receiver T.J. Thorpe and defensive back Brandon Alexander — after both players earned increased reps with the first-team units this week.

The Bombers were impressed with Thorpe at mini-camp in April and again during rookie camp — Bombers offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice went as far as to compare the 24-year-old to a former CFL great, receiver Arland Bruce — but that momentum was halted after Thorpe was sidelined with a lower-body injury.

Thorpe, who split his collegiate career between North Carolina and Virginia, missed much of the first two weeks of main camp. But he was back on the field Monday, working out in Clarence Denmark’s spot in the first-team offence. The Bombers are giving him every chance to succeed; now Thorpe must earn his keep.

The same can be said for Alexander, who has filled in at cornerback with the exit of Frederick. The 23-year-old showed off some of the fire that helped him earn a spot as a walk-on for the University of Central Florida when he got into it with veteran receiver Weston Dressler on Monday. In an attempt to strip the ball, Alexander aggressively ripped at Dressler, leading him to hit the ground and then pop up to show his displeasure. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, with Dressler showing up the next day donning a pair of red boxing gloves.

3) The offence has dominated most days at camp. But what you do on the practice field doesn’t always translate into a game. Matt Nichols, the Bombers’ starting quarterback, didn’t have a stellar debut against the Riders, completing five of eight passes for 32 yards (his longest throw totalled a meagre eight yards) in just more than a quarter of play. In four series against the Riders, the offence went two-and-out twice while earning just three first downs and zero points.

Though his numbers were not impressive, it would make little sense to read much into the stats at this point. After all, it was his first game of the season and though Nichols had his entire starting O-line protecting him, he was without his two best receivers in Dressler and Darvin Adams, as well as his safety net in running back Andrew Harris.

But with all those pieces back in place against the Eskimos, Nichols no longer gets a free pass — nor is he looking for one.

“My expectations are extremely high. I expect us to go out there and move the ball,” Nichols said. “We need to go out and be crisp as an offence and do our jobs and make plays.”

O’Shea hinted it would be up to Nichols as to how much time he’d play, at least enough to find a rhythm. Because it’s a home game — and with the Bombers having a bye in Week 1 — expect Nichols to get at least a half.

4) He’s been the Bombers’ loudest cheerleader throughout camp. Now, fully recovered from off-season surgery to his right leg, Kevin Fogg is ready to pick up where he left off last season.

Fogg moved all over the secondary as a rookie in 2016, but where he was able to make a name for himself was as a punt returner. Though the records won’t show any trips to the end zone, a peek back at the game film reveals on four occasions he was able to take the ball back to the house. Only for each touchdown he scored, there was a penalty — most, if not all, were away from the play — that wiped out the score.

By the end of the season Fogg could only laugh at his misfortune. This year, he’ll use what he learned last season as motivation to prove his ability to make plays on special teams wasn’t a fluke. And he’ll do so with a number of other players nipping at his toes.

“I didn’t score and so it really doesn’t matter. All that is washed out and in the past now,” Fogg said. “We have people who are very capable of being a returner and playing defensive back and so I can never be comfortable.”

In addition to Fogg, Ryan Lankford, who fumbled a punt against the Riders but recovered by taking another 70 yards to the end zone (that, too, was lost to a penalty) and Thorpe are also expected to return kicks against the Eskimos.

5) When the Bombers opened training camp without Khalil Bass, the opening he left at middle linebacker was quickly declared a two-way race between imports Kyle Knox and Nick Temple. But as camp progressed, it soon became clear a third candidate, non-import Sam Hurl, had not only joined the pack but also appears to have a commanding lead.

Hurl, 27, started all 18 games at middle linebacker during the 2015 season — a year the Bombers won just five games — but suffered through a number of injuries last year. That freed up Bass, who had played weak-side linebacker in 2015, to move into the middle — a spot he’d hold for the entire season. Now that Hurl is back healthy, his mind is set on earning the job back.

“That was the whole off-season, that was everything to me. From the minute I wasn’t playing that position last year, that was the whole plan, to make it back to that spot,” Hurl said. “Obviously, I’m going to do everything I can to help out in every aspect of the team but on a personal level that’s where I want to be.”

By sitting out of last week’s game, Hurl may have actually helped his case to start at MLB. Knox and Temple were both unable to stick out when called upon against the Riders, and Hurl should get a big share of the reps tonoght. It’s been a highly contested battle throughout camp, with no declared winner just yet. But that could very well change by the end of the weekend.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.catwitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

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