Under REVIEW

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/06/2015 (3749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With a CFL pre-season game now under their belts and one half of training camp in the rear-view mirror, it seems like a good time to take stock of what we’ve learned about the 2015 Winnipeg Blue Bombers:

What we’ve learned

The offensive line has gone from the weak link on this team to arguably its strongest asset — in the span of one winter.

Consider this: A Bombers offensive line that was missing four of its projected five starters in Tuesday’s pre-season win over the Toronto Argonauts still looked better than anything the O-line mustered in 2014, when the club surrendered a team-record 71 sacks and finished last in the league in rushing yards.

It’s a monument to the new-found depth the Bombers have on the offensive side of the line of scrimmage that they didn’t even skip a beat in Toronto despite leaving free agent signings Stanley Bryant, Marc Dile and Dominic Picard (not to mention the often-injured Patrick Neufeld) back in Winnipeg.

The likes of non-imports Sukh Chungh and Matthias Goossen and import Jace Daniels all looked like more than capable replacements in Toronto and Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea suddenly has himself the best problem a CFL coach can have: too many quality offensive linemen and not enough spots to play them all.

A secondary that was the best part of a bad defence last year looks like it will be an even better part of an improved defence this year.

With four starters returning from last year — cornerback Matt Bucknor, halfbacks Bruce Johnson and Demond Washington and safety Maurice Legget — the secondary was always looking like it’d be a bright spot for Winnipeg in 2015.

But the future got even brighter when rookie Johnny Adams stepped seamlessly into the starting cornerback spot vacated by Chris Randle (who’s now the SAM linebacker) and non-import safety Teague Sherman and import Shaq Richardson both jumped off the page with strong camps and big games in Toronto.

This unit has always been fast and talented. Now, they’re also very deep.

There’s some depth behind Drew Willy.

There’s never been any question Willy is once again going to be the No. 1 QB in 2015. But there were serious questions about what would happen to this team’s hopes to play in a Grey Cup game on home turf in November if Willy were to get hurt.

The answer, judging by 12 days of training camp and most of Tuesday’s night’s game in Toronto, is all would not necessarily be lost. With a new contract in hand and a command of the offence no one else but Willy has shown, Brian Brohm will be the first man off the bench this season if something happens to Willy.

And behind Brohm is an interesting battle for the third-string spot between the electric Robert Marve — who many fans would like to see play ahead of Brohm — and the workmanlike and efficient Josh Portis.

All things considered, the Bombers are deeper at quarterback right now than they’ve been since at least 2008.

Still to be answered

Dude, who’s your tailback?

Paris Cotton came is as the incumbent this season, but he’s done nothing to distinguish himself through 12 days of camp or in the pre-season game, where he was held to zero yards on three carries and coughed up a fumble.

Carlos Anderson, on the other hand, had a huge game, running back a punt for a touchdown and building on what had already been a standout training camp. Bradley Randle and Da’Rel Scott have also looked impressive at times and with barely two weeks to go before the start of the regular season, it says here even O’Shea doesn’t know right now who his starting tailback is going to be.

Dude, who’s your import wide receiver?

All the talk coming into camp was about how the club was hoping free agent signing Darvin Adams was going to help Bombers fans forget Chris Matthews, who was last seen lighting up the Super Bowl for the Seattle Seahawks.

But while Adams has looked promising, it’s the blazing speed of rookie wideout Jhomo Gordon that’s attracted the most attention from day to day. And just when it was looking like this positional battle was a conversation between those two men, Toney Clemons popped his head up Tuesday night and was nothing less than the team’s leading receiver, with three catches for 46 yards.

The positional battles

There’s also still a handful of other battles for starting jobs to be determined:

— At right guard, rookie Chungh looks to have the upper hand on veteran Neufeld, who is hurt once again.

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— At right tackle, Jace Daniels has the inside track on a job many thought would go to free agent acquisition Marc Dile, who is also hurt.

— At linebacker, it looks like the club is committed to non-import Sam Hurl as their middle linebacker and Randle is almost certainly going to at least start the season at SAM, although Adams has had some looks there too. That leaves the weak-side linebacker spot and it’s still very much up for grabs, with imports Kahlil Bass, Demitrius Wright, Tony Burnett and non-import Graig Newman all still in the conversation.

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

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