Comparatively new, hopefully improved

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This article was published 22/06/2015 (3757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG Blue Bombers fans wanted change after watching their club miss the playoffs three years in a row and five times in the last six years.

Well, they got change all right — a tidal wave of it.

Consider: the team that starts the 2015 CFL regular season in Regina Saturday includes an eye-popping 15 new starters compared to the lineup that started the final game of 2014 in Calgary.

Now, there are a couple of caveats here. First, rookie safety Demetrius Wright will start Saturday in place of veteran safety Maurice Leggett, who is on the one-game injured list and will presumably reclaim his spot as soon as he’s healthy.

Secondly, that lineup the Bombers started the final game of 2014 didn’t include defensive tackles Bryant Turner Jr. or Zach Anderson, defensive end Greg Peach or slotback Nick Moore, all of whom were hurt at the time or would otherwise have been starting.

But even if you subtract those five, the lineup Winnipeg will start with this season will have at minimum 10 bona fide new starters.

That’s a phenomenal amount of change, even in a notoriously transient league as the CFL. And when you’ve got that many new moving parts, it poses challenges.

With five new starters on offence and five new starters on defence (veteran Chris Randle is playing a new position this season), this club is going to have to find chemistry very quickly if it’s going to withstand an extraordinarily difficult early schedule that includes road games the first five weeks in Regina, Calgary and Edmonton — stadiums where the Bombers have gone to die over the last decade — and home games against Hamilton and Montreal.

Here’s a look at how all those new starters break down:

Offence

Offensive Line

An O-line that was woeful in 2014 got a complete rebuild in the off-season, with three new starters in left tackle Stanley Bryant, centre Dominic Picard and right guard Sukh Chungh.

Only left guard Chris Greaves and right tackle Jace Daniels return as starters.

Receivers

The receiving corps will also see two new starters in 2015 — non-import Cory Watson, traded in the off-season, will be replaced by non-import in Julian Feoli-Gudino (Feoli-Gudino also started a few games last year in place of an injured Watson) and the club also has a new starting import receiver in Darvin Adams.

Add a healthy Nick Moore — he missed half of last season with injuries — and the receiving corps will have a very different look.

Defence

Defensive Line

Turner, Anderson and Peach are all healthy and will be the starting tackles and end, respectively, in Regina.

Add to that healthy trio a new defensive end in former NFLer Jamaal Westerman, who some think might prove by season’s end to have been the most significant of all the free-agent signings GM Kyle Walters made during the off-season.

Linebackers

The linebackers are all new — free-agent non-import Sam Hurl slots into the middle; Randle, who started at cornerback last year, takes over a new position at strong-side; and the weak-side linebacker in Regina will be a CFL rookie in either Kahlil Bass or Tony Burnett.

Secondary

CFL rookie Johnny Adams has looked great in camp and during pre-season and looks like he’ll be a seamless replacement at corner for Randle. And Wright — who played in place of Leggett Friday in Winnipeg’s final pre-season game — looks like a competent temporary fix at safety until Leggett heals.

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