Bombers quest for dynasty resumes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/05/2023 (851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a long four months and a cold and blustery winter, the CFL is officially back.

Rookie camps kicked off on Wednesday, with main training camps getting underway on Sunday. In fewer than two week’s time, preseason will begin, setting the stage for the 2023 CFL regular season, beginning with a Thursday night tilt between the B.C. Lions at the Calgary Stampeders on June 8.

For lovers of the three-down game, this is as close to Christmas in the summer as it gets. The joy level isn’t just high with fans, every team — from the front offices to the coaching staff, to the players, all the way down to the support staff — is embracing the clean slate that comes with every new year.

In honour of the upcoming season, we’re going to do things a little bit different in this edition of CFL Rundown. Rather that dissect the major news coming out of each market — it’s a slow week, to be sure — I’ll take a look at each team and briefly examine the biggest storylines heading into what should be another exciting year of Canadian football.

Reigning champs

Let’s start with the reigning champions. The Toronto Argonauts shocked many when they edged the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 24-23, to capture the 109th Grey Cup. The Double Blue will be missing a few key players, none more notable that quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who jetted to the USFL to be closer with his young family (good luck charm, DL Ja’Gared Davis, who has played in the last six Grey Cups, is also gone).

Insert QB Chad Kelly, who after helping lead the Argos to a late comeback en route to winning the league title has been given the starting role. Kelly is more talk than punch so far in his CFL career, where he’s made several outlandish statements about his abilities and predictions of what he’s capable of achieving, comparing himself to former Toronto QB star in Doug Flutie. He’ll finally get his chance to back it up.

Championship or bust

As for the Bombers, they aren’t done trying to cement themselves as one of the best clubs ever to play in the CFL. They’ve brought back a majority of the players who have helped them make the last three Grey Cups, winning twice. If they want to be considered a dynasty, it’s championship or bust.

To ensure they have the best chance to do just that, they’ve retained a lot of their talent and brought back a couple key players from previous years. All-star receiver Kenny Lawler inked a two-year deal over the summer, returning to the Bombers, where, in an offence highlighted by the league’s reigning back-to-back most outstanding player in QB Zach Collaros, he led the CFL in receiving yards in 2021.

The Bombers have also shored up their one weakness, signing place kicker Sergio Castillo to a one-year deal. Castillo was the unofficial Grey Cup MOP in 2021, after connecting on all five of his field goals in a 33-25 overtime victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Consistency is key

Next to the Bombers, the B.C. Lions were the most exciting club in the CFL, finishing second in a tough West Division. Much of that hype was due to the dominating play of Canadian QB Nathan Rourke who, had he not broken a bone in his foot midseason, would have likely rewritten the league’s record books. In 10 regular-season games, he completed close to 80 per cent of his passes (255-for-324), threw for 3,349 yards, while putting up 25 passing touchdowns — along with seven rushing scores — compared to 10 interceptions.

With Rourke now with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, on a three-year deal that pays the 24-year-old some guaranteed money, will the Lions be nearly as good under Vernon Adams Jr.? Adams was acquired in a trade with the Montreal Alouettes after Rourke got hurt, so he does have experience with the Lions, playing in eight regular-season games, and a full training camp should only help with his comfort level.

Adams was relegated to holding the clipboard once Rourke returned late in the year and his reputation for leading a club to great success is questionable at best. The Lions have given him their full support and he’s surrounded by a ton of talent, including an improved O-line and three 1,000-yard receivers from 2021. If Adams can’t be more consistent with his play under these conditions, he might not be around very much longer as a No. 1.

Changing of the guard

There was a changing of the guard of sorts with the Stampeders, as head coach Dave Dickenson replaced John Hufnagel as the club’s general manager. I say of sorts because Hufnagel hasn’t fully exited the scene, as he’ll continue serving as the team’s president.

Either way, Dickenson had his fingerprints all over the roster during the off-season, and over the last few months the Stampeders have said goodbye to several mainstays, including their most recognizable face in quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, as well as defensive linemen Folarin Orimolade and Shawn Lemon and linebacker Jameer Thurman.

It’s now Jake Maier’s turn to lead the offence, which is made easier with a stellar O-line. While Calgary added some quality pieces, notably DL Julian Hosware, to help fill some of the holes, the Stampeders’ success this season will come only if they can take what was the youngest team last season and continue to build on what they achieved in 2022.

Nowhere to go but up

What are we to make of Chris Jones and the Edmonton Elks after a dismal 2022 season, a campaign in which they finished 4-14 and were 0-9 at home? Many believe, and there’s plenty of evidence to back it up, that Jones spent 2022 trying to find the best mix of players for future years. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

The Elks said goodbye to Lawler and fellow receiver Derel Walker, but managed to replace them with Lewis, Steven Dunbar Jr. and Kyran Moore, with up-and-comer Dillon Mitchell also back for another year. That’s an impressive group of receivers, to be sure, but how effective will the offence be under QB Taylor Cornelius?

Edmonton lost $3.3 million last season and the fan base is rightfully fed up with the club’s dismal results. I can only imagine what that will look like with another underwhelming season in the City of Champions.

Rough for the Roughriders

It was a rough one for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. There’s no better way to sum up the disappointment of last season than the fact they couldn’t even secure a playoff spot in a year they were hosting the Grey Cup.

Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, from a fractured culture among the players, stupid penalties (See: Garrett Marino and Duke Williams), injuries and inconsistent play. The two aforementioned players are gone, along with a slew of others on both sides of the ball, including QB Cody Fajardo.

I see another tough year in store for the Roughriders, led by head coach Craig Dickenson, who is in the final year of his contract, and a QB in Trevor Harris, who will need to find chemistry on an offence with so many moving pieces. If things don’t go well by Labour Day, I’d expect even more changes.

Last dance

On the topic of Fajardo, he’s got the tall task of leading the Alouettes, a club that was handcuffed by its ownership before the team was finally sold to local billionaire Pierre Karl Péladeau in early March. Under the previous ownership, Montreal was left in the dark over the early parts of the winter, leaving it unable to re-sign quality players.

They were hit particularly hard on offence, with the departure of Harris, along with Geno Lewis, the CFL’s leading receiver in 2022, and fellow pass-catcher Jake Wieneke. Fajardo, who spent a lot of last year tripping over his words as much as his feet when scrambling for his life under a leaky O-line in Regina, gets his chance to be a No. 1 again and it’s fair to say this may be his final shot.

Off-season additions

It’s never really a good sign to win free agency, but the Hamilton Tiger-Cats certainly had a stellar off-season. Something needed to give after an up-and-down season in which the Tiger-Cats just managed to squeeze into the post-season after making the Grey Cup in the previous two years.

A lot of that inconsistency came from Hamilton’s decision to keep QB Dane Evans over Jeremiah Masoli. That proved to be a big mistake, as Evans struggled mentally and physically and his inability to lead the offence was among the team’s downfalls.

They’ve built a good team with several key additions, a group simply too long to list. With Mitchell at QB, it’s unclear if he still has what it takes still to put them over the top. His end in Calgary was riddled with injuries and questionable plays. To think he’s just going to rise from the ashes seems like a dodgy bet.

Welcome to the party

Welcome to the Bobby Dyce era in Ottawa. Dyce is among the nicest people in the CFL and for that reason there are plenty of people hoping he can turn things around in the nation’s capital.

Dyce took over for Paul LaPolice late in the season and you could tell he had his players battling harder and longer. He’s added a quality staff around him, too, hiring Khari Jones as his assistant and offensive co-ordinator and Barron Miles as his DC, among others.

Masoli is the X-factor, as the season derailed after his season-ending knee injury in Week 5. I don’t think the Redblacks are going to be world-beaters, but if the new coaching staff can squeeze as much out of them as possible, they should be able to compete for a playoff spot in a weak East Division.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton