Splashy debut for Bombers’ first-year players

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2018 (2657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The good news is that with the way the pre-season falls this year for the Blue Bombers, the games and competition only gradually get harder — which is an easier adjustment for those vying for jobs. The bad news is that, well, it does only get harder from here.

It’s not often the pre-season aligns like this, but the team has gone from training camp battles against one another — the easiest — to a home pre-season game against backups — only marginally more difficult — to a bigger test in B.C. this Friday — with the most starters they will face. Then this slow descent into the scalding waters of the CFL hot tub finally culminates with the Eskimos returning for the CFL opener on June 14.

Round 1 of evaluation is always the body of work in training camp. Players compete against all levels of the depth chart, in various scenarios and tempos, and if they are successful, get their foot in the door for the pre-season.

Round 2 was last Friday night, and was about as easy, and as smooth a transition from training camp as the pre-season gets. The visiting team didn’t bring more than five projected starters — out of a possible 24 — and the home team, that started all 24 front line guys, won handedly, by 20. While it was an inauspicious start, with the franchise QB getting nicked on the very first snap, the talent disparity eventually kicked in, and the starters did what starters do to those not at the top of the depth chart.

The trend, for the majority of teams in the CFL these days, is to give your veteran starters the majority of their pre-season work at home, and then either not take them on the road, or severely limit their participation. The Lions did not take anywhere near a full complement of starters to their first pre-season game in Calgary — other than the offensive line — and their projected starter at quarterback, Jonathan Jennings, threw only five passes in a quarter’s work. You have to imagine this will not be the case this coming Friday against Winnipeg, which will make this the next level of proving ground for those roster hopefuls that showed well for Winnipeg in Game 1.

It is one thing to jump off the page in a competition against equivalently aged and experienced prospects as we saw Friday, or during training camp. It is another thing altogether when your time on the field is shared with opposing starters, or players that are a regular part of the rotation. For some of the bright spots that we saw against Edmonton — players such as running back Johnny Augustine, and quarterback Chris Streveler — what they do in this next game will be the best indicator of how far off they are from contributing to the roster this season.

Augustine had an unbelievable and unexpected result for an undrafted athlete who was a late edition to camp. If he has anywhere near the kind of success in B.C. that he did on Friday, he will warrant himself that much more scrutiny, and that many more possibilities. Head coach Mike O’Shea pointed out how impressed he was by this back, and in particular, the play in which he handled a linebacker meeting him square in the hole, at full speed. If Augustine gets another opportunity, and has the same results, against a Solomon Eliminian-type linebacker this Friday, then I would dare suggest he won’t have to worry as much about how he plays on special teams, to move forward with this team.

Streveler also had one of the rarest of debuts in Canadian football, that saw him complete 100 per cent of his attempts, throw a touchdown pass and scramble effectively with the football. While no one expects this to continue to that degree against B.C., if he even remotely resembles the player he was last Friday night, then he will also merit serious consideration to remain on the roster as a reliever. The key for both of these players, in addition to the other newcomers that showed well, will be whether they can continue to evolve their games as the bar gets raised week by week, and the competition becomes more daunting.

The final challenge, and evolution of talent, of course, will arrive in town June 14, as the team gets their first crack back at an Edmonton squad that ended this group’s playoff hopes in 2017, with the regular-season opener. If any of these first-year players continue to perform well enough to make it to this stage, then they will finally experience some of the highest level of talent and competition this league has to offer. Those that have a semblance of consistency throughout these gauntlets of ascending degrees of difficulty, will certainly have earned their stripes and spots, whether on this roster, or another.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.