Already a raft of walking wounded

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This article was published 06/06/2015 (4124 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MIKE O’SHEA is big on grit, determination and the “old-school” stuff that matters to football coaches all over the planet.

So while he tries to be understanding and patient, the growing list of walking wounded at Bombers camp has to be equal parts concerning and annoying — especially with the club opening its pre-season schedule Tuesday in Toronto against the Argonauts.

Not practising Friday due to a variety of ailments were offensive linemen Patrick Neufeld, Marc Dile and Stanley Bryant, defensive lineman Zach Anderson, receivers Nick Moore, Rory Kohlert, Julian Feoli-Gudino, Addison Richards and Justin Veltung, safety Maurice Leggett, running back Bradley Randle, defensive back Bruce Johnson and linebackers Justin Warden, Graig Newman and Dan West.

Every team suffers through a swack of injuries early in camp, but with the pre-season tilt just a few days away — and the regular season opening in just over three weeks — the Bombers need every rep of every day to make their evaluations.

So it was with that backdrop O’Shea was asked following practice Friday if those who were healthy and participating were helping themselves by grinding it out every day.

“I like toughness, obviously. I like guys who gut it out. That’s important to me,” said O’Shea. “When you’re down in numbers it also means they are forced to take more reps, so what you have to do as a coaching staff is drop the numbers in terms of your practice reps, and you have to be able to pick them up at some point later. It’s just a bit of a balancing act. Sometimes what happens when you get injuries at certain positions, it can wear the guy out a little bit in front of him.

“We’ll have to keep that in mind and manage it properly before the game, so they can show their best stuff.”

O’Shea said the Bombers will dress 54 players in Toronto and while his plan for the five quarterbacks on the depth chart has been set, the pivots had yet to be told of the rotation. The roster will be a mix of veterans and rookies, but likely will be dominated by some of the fresh faces.

“You just look through the roster and look where some guys are nicked up… it’s going to play out differently in certain areas,” said O’Shea. “There in itself, is a challenge. If you want to get a good look at some tailbacks then you’ve need to keep productive on the O-line. So you can’t just put all the young guys in all at once.”

NEW BLUE BLOOD: The Bombers made one addition on Friday, signing import linebacker Tony Burnett. A 6-1, 205-pound product of USC, Burnett was signed by the San Diego Chargers after going undrafted in 2013 and got a training-camp look from the B.C. Lions last year. While with the Trojans, Burnett played a number of positions, including cornerback, linebacker and safety.

MULTI-TASKING: Troy Stoudermire continues to be busy through training camp on both sides of the ball. He wore an offensive jersey for the first chunk of practice Friday as a receiver, then switched to defensive back for the second half.

And, oh yeah, he’s also the team’s best kick returner. But the workload isn’t necessarily what O’Shea wants for Stoudermire long-term.

“We can help the team by getting him involved as much as possible, obviously,” said O’Shea. But we’re not doing him favours, because there’s two sets of meetings, two sets of installations every single night. We also have to see where it works for our team.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait