Bombers bolster bullpen with Boyd

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This article was published 15/09/2015 (4033 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Winnipeg Blue Bombers have learned the brutally hard way this season there can never be enough arms in a team’s bullpen.

To that end, this outfit, which has started four different quarterbacks this season, has added another by trading a conditional draft pick to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for Tajh Boyd.

The deal will likely be made official by the club today.

A big-time star at Clemson, Boyd was most recently released by the Pittsburgh Steelers after being a sixth-round draft pick of the New York Jets in 2014.

He has agreed to terms with the Bombers and joins a stable that now includes Drew Willy and Robert Marve (both injured), current starter Matt Nichols, Dominique Davis and Brian Brohm.

Boyd’s impending arrival, however, could mean the axe will soon swing and one of the names in the QB stable could be cut loose.

Boyd, who turns 25 later this month, put up huge numbers as a dual threat during his college days with the Tigers from 2011-13. He set school and ACC records. He was the conference’s Player of the Year in 2012 and a first-team All-American while leading the Tigers to an Orange Bowl victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes.

LINEBACKER TOURING CFL: The Henoc Muamba Sweepstakes Tour of the Canadian Football League is scheduled to make another stop today, this time in Vancouver.

The highly coveted Canadian middle linebacker was to travel to the West Coast and meet with the B.C. Lions, after visiting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Saturday.

A CFL free agent following his release from the Indianapolis Colts and a look-see from the New York Giants last week, Muamba will not sign a contract until he completes his meetings and discussions with all interested clubs.

And the list of suitors is long.

Muamba apparently already has offers from the Ticats, Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the team that drafted him first overall in 2011 and with whom he stayed through to the end of the 2013 season before heading south.

Muamba’s agent, Johnathan Hardaway, has been working to find Muamba a home in the CFL since his departure from the Colts, with whom he spent the 2014 season and was one of their final cuts earlier this month.

The Ticats have a new facility and are one of the CFL’s elite squads while the Lions, like the Bombers, are fighting for a playoff spot in the West Division.

The Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders are also said to be potential players in the Muamba sweepstakes.

And, the Edmonton Eskimos may also be appealing. Muamba’s brother Cauchy, a teammate during his last year with the Bombers in 2013, is now in the Alberta capital.

The Bombers would desperately love to have Muamba return and are said to be willing to match or exceed any offer pitched to the 26-year-old product of St. Francis Xavier University.

Not only was he developing into a difference-maker at the middle-linebacker position before he exited to the NFL — he was a CFL all-star in 2013 and voted the club’s Most Outstanding Player, Most Outstanding Defensive Player and Most Outstanding Canadian that season — he was a popular face of the franchise in the community.

The Bombers also cleared some cap space recently with the trade of offensive lineman Chris Greaves to the Eskimos.

It’s uncertain if Muamba will visit the Bombers on this current tour, as he is already familiar with GM Kyle Walters, the facility and some of the staff.

He is expected to demand a six-figure signing bonus and a three-year contract with a salary in excess of $200,000 per season.

SICK BAY SWELLS: Already decimated by injuries this season to key personnel, the Bombers’ walking wounded will be welcoming another to their crew this weekend.

Slotback Nick Moore, who leads the team in receptions (47) and yards (547), will miss this weekend’s game in Montreal against the Alouettes — and possibly longer — with a lower-body injury.

Moore is coming off his first 100-yard effort as a Bomber, pulling in three passes for 103 yards in Saturday’s Banjo Bowl victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

He missed half of last season and two games earlier this year.

— with files from Gary Lawless

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca