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Friday night preseason tilt last chance to impress Bombers’ brass

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will go with a roster full of mostly fresh faces for their preseason finale after playing a majority of its veterans in last week’s opener.

The Bombers welcome the Saskatchewan Roughriders to town Friday night in what will be the team’s final tuneup before the regular season gets underway with a home date against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on June 9.

The lineup against the Roughriders will feature some experienced Bombers, but is made up mostly of rookies and newcomers trying to carve out a spot — either on the active roster or practice team. Final cuts will be made Saturday.

“Be right and make plays,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said when asked what players can do to make a final strong and lasting impression. “Show a high degree of physicality — all the stuff we like from football players.”

Jones on the hot seat against Roughriders

Josh Jones will need to have one heck of a performance Friday night if he wants to remain with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The 22-year-old quarterback is in a battle with fellow rookie Tyrrell Pigrome for the team’s third-string job but already finds himself as the underdog.

Pigrome won over a lot of people last week in the club’s preseason opener in Edmonton by completing two-of-four passes for 43 yards, while leading the club with 71 rushing yards on five carries, and scoring a pair of touchdowns with his legs.

Jones, who started five seasons at NCAA Division II UNC-Pembroke, took the reins on the final two drives but wasn’t able to make the same splash in the 25-23 victory.

Star receiver Lawler suspended by Bombers

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are dealing with a massive hit to their roster just a week before the CFL season begins.

The team has transferred star receiver Kenny Lawler to the suspended list, “… pending resolution of matters related to his 2021 off-field incident,” the Bombers said in a statement. An update on Lawler’s status will be provided once the situation resolves, with the expectation that it will take between three or four weeks to achieve that goal, the two-sentence statement read.

There was no further information provided by the Bombers.

However, league sources confirmed to the Free Press the off-field incident in question is related to Lawler’s charge for impaired driving after a single-vehicle accident in the early hours of Monday, Oct. 4, 2021.

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Bombers training camp and exhibition games are for evaluating talent

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.

Friday night match against Roughriders final audition for trio of kickers

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are still struggling to solve their punting situation after 18 days of training camp and a pre-season game.

If anything, things are more complicated than ever as Global punters Jamieson Sheahan and Karl Schmitz both impressed in last Saturday’s exhibition game at Commonwealth Stadium against the Edmonton Elks.

The pair had four punts each, with Sheahan’s going for an average of 48.3 yards per kick and Schmitz’s travelling 49.5 yards.

Canadian Marc Liegghio, the team’s punter the past two seasons, sat out the Edmonton game but will get a chance to show his stuff on Friday at IG Field against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the preseason finale.