Harris questionable, Adams ruled out for Friday’s opener

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This article was published 22/06/2016 (3393 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After three weeks of training camp, including two pre-season games, everything seemed to be going just fine for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Despite the gruelling schedule — some of which included multiple workouts and heated battles as players fought to crack the roster — it looked as though Winnipeg would head into Friday’s season opener at home against the Montreal Alouettes unscathed.

Then came Wednesday, when the Bombers were hit with a double-dose of bad news as starting running back Andrew Harris, who signed as a free agent after six seasons with the B.C. Lions, was listed as questionable and Johnny Adams, one of the team’s best defensive backs, was officially ruled out.

The news on Adams didn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, Adams hadn’t practised since sustaining a lower-body injury on the second day of training camp, and though head coach Mike O’Shea had said earlier in the week he was still a game-time decision, it sounded more like wishful thinking than anything.

More surprising was the potential loss of Harris, who first created worry after he pulled up lame near the end of practice Tuesday. Harris had a noticeable limp as he made his way off the field, but his condition was later downplayed by O’Shea, who seemed unconcerned after he had talked to Harris. At 29, Harris has missed just six games in his career — all of which came during the 2014 season after he dislocated his ankle.

But that all changed Wednesday when Harris, with a towel draped over his head while still in workout clothes, including his white gloves, was limited to spectator status at practice. Unable to run, he watched as Timothy Flanders took the reps with the first-team offence.

With only a team walk-through today before the game, it’s becoming unlikely Harris, who was the team’s biggest off-season signing and story — Harris is from Winnipeg, making it enough to eat up news headlines for months, even long after his signing in February — will be ready to go for Week 1.

But, as was the case with Adams, O’Shea was still holding out hope of a return.

“Until someone tells me that he’s not playing I’m assuming that he’s playing,” the coach said.

The loss of Harris would certainly be a big one. He offers both a threat in the run game — he finished last season second in CFL rushing with 1,039 yards — and was expected to be a safety net for quarterback Drew Willy to pitch the ball to whenever he found himself in trouble. Harris’s 484 receiving yards gave him a combined total of 1,523 yards from scrimmage last season, the most of any player in the league. He is also Canadian, which means his absence would affect the way the Bombers handle the ratio.

“Of course he’s a big part of what we do in the planning,” said O’Shea. “But that’s why you have training camp and that’s why you find guys that are going to step up when they get their name called.”

It’s a common motto in professional football: next man up. It means when one guy goes down, there’s another in line ready to take his spot. And the Bombers aren’t the only ones faced with finding depth at key positions this early in the season. In Hamilton, the Tiger-Cats are without quarterback Zach Collaros, who is rehabing from a knee injury that put an end to his MVP-calibre season in 2015. William Powell, the starting running back for the Ottawa Redblacks, is out for the season with an Achilles injury suffered in the 18-14 pre-season win over the Bombers.

Any amount of time Harris misses would leave a major hole for the Bombers, but the kind O’Shea believes his team has the depth to push through. Canadian depth was a focus in the off-season. Along with Harris, the team added Keith Shologan, a native of Spruce Grove, Alta., to play on the defensive line. But whether the ratio works is for management to worry about. As for the players in the locker room, they feel they have enough in the cupboards to fill any void on the field.

“When you’re on the field there’s no such thing as a backup,” said defensive lineman Jamaal Westerman. “I’m excited for whoever is back there.”

If Harris can’t go, it will be Flanders who’s the next man up. Flanders, a 24-year-old out of Sam Houston State, showed glimpses of his talent early on in camp, but it was his performance in the pre-season games that convinced the Bombers to choose him over Carlos Anderson as a backup to Harris. In a 36-13 pre-season opener win over the Alouettes, Flanders paced all backs, running for 80 yards and a touchdown. He followed that up with six carries for 29 yards against Ottawa the following week – a total that tied for the team-high.

“I feel like I took advantage of every rep that I had,” said Flanders. “As long as I’m ready and the coaches feel like I’m ready to play then I’ll be good.”

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In order for Flanders to prove his worth, he’ll have to be great. Fair or not, whether or not Flanders has a good outing will be judged for more than just his ability to run the ball: his catching skills; how well he can pass-block; his ability to break for big plays — all the things the Bombers would expect to get from Harris — will be under the microsope.

“I’ve never really compared them,” said O’Shea, when asked what the differences are between Harris and Flanders, before noting Harris’ skill as a receiver. “I don’t know if we’ve put Tim in that position yet.”

‘When you’re on the field there’s no such thing as a backup. I’m excited for whoever is back there”– Bombers defensive end Jamaal Westerman

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @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.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.