Where will they fit in?

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This article was published 10/08/2016 (3603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — It is possible to have too much of a good thing? The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will soon find out.

As the Blue and Gold regain their health in the standings, rebounding from a 1-4 start with back-to-back wins to improve to 3-4 heading into Friday’s game against the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field, it comes at a time when they’re getting healthier on the roster.

If that sounds like a good thing, that’s because it is.

The Bombers getting the likes of receivers Weston Dressler and Ryan Smith and defensive backs Chris Randle, Macho Harris and Julian Posey — all of whom could return return from injury as early as the end of next week, following the Bombers’ bye week — back on the field is good news for the team as they head into the second half of the season and a battle for a playoff spot in the West Division.

There’s just one problem: where will they fit in?

If you’re answer is right back to where they started the year, as starters, you may not be wrong. After all, the Bombers have committed too much money and time on those players, many of whom are not only relied upon to be leaders on the field but also in the locker room, only to be left rotting on the bench.

Add to that the fact most of them are veteran players, were performing well and had won the starting job out of training camp, and it’s a rock-solid case to just hand them back their starter status.

“It’s a good problem,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said after last week’s 37-11 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Investors Group Field, in what was arguably the team’s best showing of the season in all three phases of the game — offence, defence and special teams.

Perhaps second to only the effort put forth the week before, when the Bombers dressed the same lineup — that one considered doomed because of all the second-stringers — in Edmonton, only to do what no Bombers team had done for a full decade. They beat the reigning Grey Cup champion Eskimos 30-23 at Commonwealth Stadium, and the score flattered their opponents.

The fact the Bombers are currently playing their best football of the season gives the coaching staff an equally strong case to remain status quo with the lineup they choose to tackle the Argos.

O’Shea, who played 16 seasons as a middle linebacker in the CFL, said earlier this week, when asked if injured players should have the right to regain their starting role, that he’s pondered that question over and over.

He’s even received advice from other coaches, one of whom shared with him their belief, a sentiment O’Shea appeared to agree with at the time, that “durability is an ability that you need to have.”

“I don’t think it’s always clear cut that you just jump right back in to your spot,” said O’Shea. “It’s going to be evaluated player by player, position by position.”

It’s an evaluation process no coach would envy, but a position all would love to have. To have too much depth, well, you’re not likely to get sympathy from anyone.

But that doesn’t mean O’Shea isn’t faced with decisions that could alter the direction of his team moving forward, and the playing status of some players.

Just consider for a moment what, and who, he’ll be asked to tinker with. Firstly, a group of receivers that, under backup-quarterback-turned-starter Matt Nichols, have shown instant chemistry and proven more effective than other versions of the offence in the first five games of the season.

In the past two games, the Bombers have averaged more than 33 points. Before then, they hadn’t scored 30 points since opening day of last season.

Needless to say, when the time does come to reinsert Smith and Dressler it won’t be easy to ask Thomas Mayo, who led all Bombers receivers with seven catches for 84 yards and a touchdown against the Ticats last week, to return to the practice roster.

So, too, will it be hard to suggest Clarence Denmark take a seat on the bench while others try to live up to the standards they’ve set the past two weeks. Last week, it took Denmark just three minutes, 36 seconds to find the end zone in his first game since returning to the Bombers.

“It’s not fair for both guys but we’re all a team,” said defensive tackle Euclid Cummings. “I feel like in those situations you got to do what’s best for the team, right?”

What is best for the team? To alter a Bombers secondary that has shut down arguably the two most dangerous offences in Hamilton and Edmonton in as many weeks?

Will asking C.J. Roberts, Terrence Frederick or Taylor Loffler to take a seat on the bench really make the Bombers better? The trio of rookies looked comfortable and came up with big plays in the last two games, with each snagging an interception.

“That’s a real good question,” said Cummings. “At the end of the day, somebody has got to come out on top or somebody has got to play somebody else out, but at least the team knows that’s there’s depth.

“There could be a worse situation, where there’s a guy that’s not ready.”

The problem for the Bombers is there will soon be too many guys available who can play. Maybe too much of a good thing is no problem at all. We’ll soon find out.

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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