Bombers pre-season action far more important for offence unit timing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/06/2017 (3102 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Each season, no matter how much a team changes or stays the same, they all require something different from their pre-season schedule. These requirements, though, aren’t as obvious or as logical as one would think. The only universal mandate is to stay as healthy as possible. But, spending time worrying about injury inevitabilities is as fruitful as trying to stiff-arm father time.

Even though the 2017 Winnipeg Blue Bombers are as similar to their previous-year selves as they’ve been in eons, there still has been considerable change, and change requires evaluation, repetition and cohesion in order to benefit your team. While you will never read in these inches that practice isn’t essential, it will never carry the same weight that game reps do.

Out of all of the phases on the football team, the offence was shaken up the least in the offseason. The offensive line is status quo — which might be the most underrated thing the team has going for it in 2017 — and the quarterback is back with a vengeance and without controversy. The running game is stable and similar and the majority of receivers — minus a starter or two — are business as usual. It would appear then, that players on the starting unit would not require as much time together in the pre-season as last year, since it has a degree of continuity.

While the offence should be exponentially ahead at this time than where it was last year — especially in terms of familiarity with returning offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice’s playbook — offence is never just about knowing what to do; it’s always about knowing how to do it. With so many moving parts, so much choreography and so many timing variables, game-speed reps are more critical for this phase of the football team than any other. Defence and special teams don’t have to get into rhythms and develop their own metronome-like cadences and patterns to execute football plays effectively. No matter whether an offensive group has been together for multiple seasons, or is completely new, pre-season snaps are valuable. In fact, if you could guarantee a co-ordinator and head coach that you would not lose any valuable assets in the pre-season, you would probably see every starting offence in the CFL taking every single snap.

While you can never prevent injuries from happening in camp and during the exhibition contests, and can’t spend your time worrying about their inevitable occurrences, the reality of the pre-season dictates that teams be prudent and limit the exposure of their starters. No player on the roster benefits more from game-speed repetitions and live play than a quarterback, but no other player affects the outcome of the regular season more, either. With starting QB Matt Nichols, the Bombers could very well figure the reps in Saskatchewan are too valuable to pass up, as this is the first season he will kick off as the starter, and he is only 30 years old. Then again, with his injury history, it may prove to be too big of a risk to take. This decision will most likely come down to how he is faring so far in camp physically, and where the administrators feel he is at in terms of being close to the top of his game. Nichols could play anywhere from a series or two in Regina, to a quarter, to not even travelling with the team.

Defensively, with the majority of the front seven being overhauled, and multiple positions up for grab, you might figure the coaching staff is going to want to see if their new acquisitions blossom, or start to melt under the bright lights. If you can’t recognize the performance of a player from practice to game day — like we’ve seen with many players over the years — then that is of grave concern.

Except, since there is a little less “exactness” required on the better half of the football field (defence), pre-season games are not as critical, unless it is for evaluation purposes of younger players. Being disruptive, and ruining things in general, do not require the same level of precision and timing repetition as the offence. One would expect to see more veterans from this grouping not make the trip, unless the coaches still haven’t figured out who is going to be playing where on opening day.

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97