Preseason poor indicator of campaign to come

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This article was published 31/05/2023 (842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s always important to take the CFL preseason with a grain of salt.

While players work all off-season to get into shape, and then use training camp as a way to further get ready for the season, there’s really no way to truly replicate the kind of action you see in a ‘real’ game. Because players need time to shake off the rust built up over a long winter, performances in the preseason — good or bad — aren’t necessarily strong indicators of what’s to come.

Add in the fact key players are often limited in their playing time or held out altogether, making room for younger and inexperienced players who in most cases are new to the CFL, drawing any kind of concrete conclusions is a fool’s game.

That’s not to suggest what we’ve seen over the last week is meaningless — not even close. A strong preseason effort can earn a rookie a job or, in the case of a seasoned veteran, provide the confidence to hit the ground running when the regular season starts.

This is just your annual warning the talk around the water cooler might not be as good or as bad as it sounds. We’re learning about teams, to be sure, but we won’t have some of the answers we’re looking for, for at least another week or so.

Either way, it’s great to have the CFL back up and running for what should be another exciting season of three-down football. Let’s get into it, in the latest edition of CFL Rundown.

1) There were four CFL games last weekend: the Montreal Alouettes squeaked out a 22-21 win over the Ottawa Redblacks; the Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeated the Toronto Argonauts 27-22; the Winnipeg Blue Bombers survived a late push by the Elks to win 25-23; and the Saskatchewan Roughriders edged the B.C. Lions 30-27.

2) You have to give kudos to the CFL for coming up with CFL Preseason Live — a new and free streaming service on its website that has all the preseason games except the two being broadcasted by TSN. It’s good, not great, with some timing and audio issues here and there. At least it’s enough to give fans a chance to keep up with their clubs and provides access to something that wouldn’t otherwise be available.

3) There is one issue looming over the CFL and that’s implementing the league’s new statistics software. As it stands, live stats are currently unavailable, and word is the technical difficulties might extend into the regular season. That would be far from ideal for media covering the games and fans who like to keep up to date on the stats, including fantasy. I’m told the CFL is working on it and is confident it will be fixed over the next couple of weeks. The fact the league, equipped with a new partnership with Genius Sports, promised to provide live play-by-play data from the start of the preseason, I’m not holding my breath.

4) With the full understanding that preseason games count for nothing in the standings, it’s still wild the Roughriders win over the Lions was their first exhibition game victory since 2014. Over those 13 games, Saskatchewan has been outscored 398-217. To be fair, they tied the Bombers, 25-25, in 2017.

5) The Bombers were the only team this week not to issue a depth chart ahead of their game against the Elks — something they’ve neglected to do for years. It’s a pretty bunk move, making it harder for fans and media to know which players are competing for which spots. They don’t technically have to do it, but they should.

6) The Elks had a lot of success running the ball against Winnipeg, to the tune of 160 rushing yards, with running backs Kevin Brown and Shannon Brooks combining for 127 yards on the ground. The Bombers were without Jackson Jeffcoat and Jake Thomas, as well as middle linebacker Adam Bighill, but the depth on the defensive line still seems like a concern after the departures of Casey Sayles and Steven Richardson in recent years. I know he’s a true edge rusher, but might the Bombers be interested in signing free agent defensive end Shawn Lemon? The buzz is Lemon wants to come to Winnipeg, and probably wouldn’t be too expensive as he chases a Grey Cup in the final stages of his career.

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7) Speaking of Lemon, in case you missed it, the reigning West nominee for most outstanding defensive player is currently out of a job after being cut by the Lions in camp. The Lions needed cap room to sign former Bomber and B.C. native Jonathan Kongbo, which also led to the release of Canadian linebacker Jordan Herdman-Reed, who has since signed with Calgary. While Lemon, who will be 35 in August, is no spring chicken, he did have a CFL-high 14 QB sacks last year and is considered a team-first guy. Fun fact: the last time a player was nominated as a division’s top defensive performer and then cut the following training camp was Bear Woods. Woods was released by Montreal ahead of the 2017 season, before signing with Toronto and winning the Grey Cup that year.

8) Above all else, the most important part of training camp is getting to the regular season as healthy as possible. On that note, it’s been tough sledding for the Redblacks, as defensive back Money Hunter (pectoral) and receiver Shaq Evans (broken finger) are both out with long-term injuries. It’s particularly rough news for Evans, who, at 32 years old, is proving to be injury prone. Evans signed with Ottawa as a free agent after four years in Saskatchewan, where he was limited to just 17 regular-season games over the last two seasons, while dealing with a broken bone in each leg. As they often say, sometimes the best ability is availability.

9) The Elks are the lone team to have already wrapped up thier preseason games and have set their sights on the regular season. Edmonton released 18 players earlier this week, trimming down to a more manageable number. They’re treating the next two weeks as preparation for Week 1, when they host the Roughriders on June 11. Hopefully, that will be enough time for GM/head coach Chris Jones to get his guys ready for a critical home affair. It’s critical, of course, because the Elks haven’t won at Commonwealth Stadium since before the COVID-19 pandemic, back on Oct. 12, 2019. What’s more, the club is currently offering a promotion in which fans buy a home-game ticket that’s good until they win at home.

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.