Delivering the goods

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/07/2015 (3702 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the most compelling questions surrounding the Winnipeg Blue Bombers coming into the 2015 CFL season was whether the real Nick Moore would finally reveal himself?

Was he, Bombers Nation wondered, the player who had a breakout season with the B.C. Lions in 2013, finishing third in the league in receiving yards and causing a hyperventilating Bombers front office to throw big bucks at him in free agency during the ensuing off-season?

Or was he, Bombers Nation feared, the oft-injured slotback the fan base saw last season in his first year in Blue and Gold, a player who was good when he played but who simply did not play nearly enough in a season in which a litany of injuries caused him to miss nine games?

The early returns from 2015 suggest it’s the former. Through four games, Moore has a league-leading 27 catches and is third in the CFL with 289 receiving yards, trailing Weston Dressler of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montreal Alouettes’ S.J. Green.

If Moore maintained that pace, he would finish this season with a mind-boggling 122 catches for 1,301 yards, recording one of the highest single season catch totals in CFL history.

Moore’s best year was in 2013, when he caught 73 passes for 1,105 yards in his final season with the Lions.

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea says Moore has settled the argument about who he is, what he’s capable of and why management decided in February 2014 to sign him to a contract that pays him $185,000 a season — a princely sum by CFL standards for an import receiver.

“There’s very high expectations on Nick Moore,” O’Shea said Wednesday, “and he reaches them no problem. He’s a premier receiver. We expect a lot out of him and he’s delivering.”

As for his reliability, Moore has started every this season and while anything can happen in a game in which large men run at top speed and hit one another, Moore thinks the spate of injuries that cost him half of the 2014 season are now behind him.

“It’s a physical game out there and you never know what can happen,” said Moore. “But I feel like I’ve been doing all the right things this year. I’ve been getting in the weight room and taking care of my body. Not that I wasn’t doing that last year, but I’ve been doing it even more this year. And that little bit extra has really helped.”

Fellow Bombers slotback Clarence Denmark, who is also on pace to record a career season in 2015, has helped Moore’s cause. Denmark has 12 catches for 268 yards and together, the tandem of Moore and Denmark make the Bombers the only team to have two receivers in the Top 6 in receiving yards.

Moore says the constant deep threat Denmark poses — Denmark’s 22.3- yards-per-catch average is second best in the CFL — has given him more room to operate underneath, where he’s always been most effective.

“When you have both sides of the field evenly distributed and evenly successful, it makes it that much harder for the defence,” said Moore.

“It’s hard for them to pick and choose who they’re going to try and stop.”

Denmark came into the 2015 season off a breakout year in 2014 in which he recorded his first 1,000-yards-plus season but he says the success Moore is having this year is all his own.

“It’s all about Nick. I don’t think his success has anything to do with mine. He’s having a great year and he’s a great player.

“It’s not surprising to me what he’s been doing this year.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek