All hail Blue’s Hajrullahu

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/10/2014 (3993 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seven members of the Winnipeg media, plus Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea, are voting this week on Winnipeg’s most outstanding players in six different categories.

Identifying the best of a bad lot is a bit of a tall order in a 2014 season in which the Bombers will miss the playoffs for the fifth time in six years and head into the final week of the regular season on an eight-game losing streak.

But here’s my best effort:

TOP CANADIAN: For a team that headed into the 2014 season with a bit of a bare shelf in this category, a couple of pleasant surprises emerged.

Linebacker Teague Sherman, from whom not much was expected, morphed into a starter for awhile and is second in the CFL in forced fumbles.

And cornerback Matt Bucknor, who was acquired last winter for depth in a secondary where Winnipegger Donovan Alexander was expected to be the non-import starter, won the starting job out of training camp and never gave it up all year long.

But my pick is Lirim Hajrullahu, who won the kicking duties in training camp and then had the punting duties thrust upon him when Mike Renaud went down. You’re going to be hearing a lot more about Hajrullahu in the coming paragraphs, so let’s just leave it at this for now: A Canadian who can kick and punt at a high level like Hajrullahu is as rare as he is valuable.

TOP ROOKIE: Don Unamba shares the team lead in special-teams tackles and had won a starting linebacker job by season’s end.

Remember Nic Grigsby? The Bombers released him a few weeks back, but he still earns consideration if for no other reason than he led the CFL in yards from scrimmage for much of the season.

But again, my pick is Hajrullahu, who heads into Week 19 on pace to set records for field-goal accuracy for the Bombers and for CFL rookies.

Top special teams: Unamba and cornerback Chris Randle are both tied for fifth in the CFL with 20 special-teams tackles.

But — and yeah, we know this is repetitive — my vote once again goes to Hajrullahu. Consider: he’s 36-of-41 on field goals this season, a slick 87.8 per cent accuracy rate. He’s got a 51-yarder that was the third longest in the CFL this year, and he has the second-longest average distance on kickoffs in the league. Plus, he’s got a 43.8 yard average on punts, which puts him in middle of a very experienced CFL pack in a job he wasn’t even supposed to do this year.

TOP OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: Any media person who tells you he knows the intricacies of what is going on within the line of scrimmage from down to down is either a weirdo or a liar. (Probably both, actually — who’d lie about something like that?)

So every year at this time, the local voters check in with the assistant coaches on the Bombers staff about who on the club’s offensive line has graded out highest from game to game. The report back this year was that, once again, the highest marks consistently went to veteran import left tackle Glenn January.

In a year when the Bombers gave up a franchise record 70 sacks (and counting), that’s like being called the tallest short person. In my books, the left tackle — the most important position on the O-line — has to also bear a higher share of the responsibility for the unit’s historic failures this year to protect quarterback Drew Willy.

So my pick is Bombers centre Steve Morley, instead. Morley did two things that stood out for me this year. First, he switched to centre from right guard because the team needed him to do so — and he never looked terribly out of place.

And second, he continued to be the most durable offensive lineman in Winnipeg. You know which offensive lineman has played every single snap for the Bombers this season? Morley — and only Morley.

TOP DEFENSIVE PLAYER: Middle linebacker Ian Wild heads into Week 19 sixth in the CFL in defensive tackles with 70 despite missing four games with injury this season — a remarkable achievement all on its own.

But my vote goes to safety Maurice Leggett, the most reliable member of the secondary all season long. Leggett’s got five interceptions, three fumble recoveries, seven pass knockdowns and 62 tackles heading into Calgary. And, oh yeah, let’s not forget his 114-yard return for a touchdown on a missed field goal.

MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER: Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said this week Drew Willy is a no-brainer in this category. O’Shea’s vote — and the sway his pronouncement will have on the academy — will almost certainly mean Willy will win.

But it will be without my vote — and here’s why. For starters, the gold standard for rating quarterbacks in my books is the TD to interception ratio and Willy’s heading into Calgary is 14:16, when the ideal is something closer to 2:1. Among CFL starters, only Ottawa’s Henry Burris has also thrown more interceptions than touchdowns this year, which tells you something.

Yes, some of those interceptions were because the Bombers were lousy and Willy was pressing late in games. But his 14 touchdown passes are also the second lowest in the league, ahead of only Burris. (Hamilton’s Zach Collaros has 13 TD passes, but he’s had fewer starts).

What’s more, I think Willy has regressed as the season has worn on and I’d argue — and I think he’d agree, judging by his post-game comments — that his performance against the B.C. Lions last weekend was actually his worst game of the year.

And finally, the award is most ‘outstanding’ player, not most ‘valuable’ player. Is Willy the Bombers’ most valuable player? Of course — every CFL team’s starting quarterback is. Does he have a bright future to come? I sure think so.

But was Willy the most outstanding player on the Bombers this year? Nope. To me, you’d have to be crazy to vote Hajrullahu the club’s top Canadian, top rookie and top special- teams player and then pick someone else as the most outstanding player.

A kicker is the most outstanding Bombers player in 2014? Scoff if you want — there’s a reason this team is riding an eight-game losing streak. And that’s one of them.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek