Bombers’ kicking options limited

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This article was published 05/10/2015 (3968 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Now what?

With Winnipeg Blue Bombers kicker Lirim Hajrullahu replacing offensive co-ordinator Marcel Bellefeuille as the man fans most want to run out of town, the question to be asked is whether the brass have a better option available.

The knee-jerk answer to that question, of course, is the Bombers could trot out a high-school kicker and he couldn’t possibly do worse than the debacle Hajrullahu put forward Saturday.

Hajrullahu — for those of you living underground over the weekend — missed four field-goal attempts and a convert and was fitted for horns Saturday at Investors Group Field as the Bombers (once again) seized defeat from the jaws of victory in a 24-23 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos.

While there’s no excusing Hajrullahu’s performance or pretending it was anything other than decisive, it’s worth taking a deep breath at this moment and giving the idea some sober second thought before simply jettisoning a non-import who does both place-kicking and punting and who was the 2014 West Division nominee for special teams player of the year.

(Remember that? Oh, heady days.)

There’s a reason the Bombers offered Hajrullahu a contract extension last winter, and there’s a reason he turned it down: the kicking chops he showed in 2014 in tying a CFL rookie record for field-goal accuracy make him a very desirable commodity.

Or at least he used to be.

Hajrullahu was already struggling before Saturday. His 77.8 per cent field-goal accuracy rate (21 of 27 prior to the game) was third worst in the league before all those misses against Edmonton. And the six converts he’s missed this season? That’s a league worst.

If past performance is the best indicator of future performance, no one should have been surprised that Hajrullahu’s four field-goal misses all came from 40 yards and beyond. Even before Saturday, Hajrullahu was worst in the CFL from that distance, going just six of 11 from 40 yards-plus coming in.

It’s fair to say Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea was being less than honest Saturday when he came to Hajrullahu’s defence by insisting to reporters his kicker has actually been pretty good this year (prior to the Esks game).

No, he wasn’t. Not by any measure, and the only thing that changed Saturday was a bad season for Hajrullahu — and the Bombers, who fell to 4-10 with the loss — got exponentially worse.

But again, brandishing pitchforks and torches and running Hajrullahu out of town doesn’t get you anywhere if you don’t have a better option. The most obvious one for the Bombers, if they decide to go with a new kicker, and O’Shea was noncommittal when the question was put to him Saturday, would be the man they already have on their practice roster, Sergio Castillo.

Castillo has been here since late August and is at practice every day. It’s hard to judge a kicker based on nothing more than his performance at practice, but it is clear Castillo has plenty of leg, based on some of the moonshots he launches through the uprights every day.

Whether Castillo could also handle the punting duties is unclear, but Castillo had a deep collegiate resumé at West Texas A&M, setting a school and Lone Star Conference record with 62 career field goals. He also won the Fred Mitchell Award in 2013, which goes to the top collegiate kicker in the U.S. playing in Division II and below.

That Castillo is a non-import is a wrinkle, but the Bombers do appear to have the roster flexibility to add an American kicker. They’ve carried eight Canadian starters — one more than the league minimum — for most the season, until the weekend, when they added import Kevin Cone to the 44-man roster and went with four import receivers.

Winnipeg’s other kicking options? Well, longtime CFL veteran Noel Prefontaine doesn’t appear to be playing anywhere these days. He comes to mind. Troy Westwood does a morning radio show in the city and has his afternoons and evenings free. Trevor Kennerd still lives in town.

And now that getting caught with weed barely earns you a ticket, Bernie Ruoff would no doubt be welcomed back with open arms to a city that ran him out of town in 1980, after he was busted for pot.

The point is, beyond Castillo, Winnipeg’s options after Hajrullahu are slim and none. Layer on top of that the fact O’Shea is loathe — ever — to admit mistakes and fiercely defensive of his players, and it seems unlikely Winnipeg will simply jettison a man the team had hoped not so long ago would fill its kicking and punting needs for years to come.

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