7 Ticats Free Agents

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
#1

From Drew Edwards,

“In addition to Burris, Johnson and Lawrence, the Ticats would appear to have four other players set to become free agents in February. They are veteran special-teams ace Marc Beswick, kicker Luca Congi, defensive tackle Torrey Davis and long-snapper Kevin Scott.”

These players are not scrubs, all of these players play a very important role on the team.

The Cats may not have to protect them in the upcoming Expansion draft because of their FA Status,
But that is a huge gamble, and Ottawa will have lots of cap to spend.

http://scratchingpost.thespec.com
#2

The protected list will include some potential FA's or the Cats risk losing them. Whatever happens we will lose more than one current starter. KA has his work cut out for him. :wink:

#3

Would it be considered tampering to offer a potential free agent a contract before the expansion draft.
IE: If we leave player A unprotected while he is still the property of the team offer a potential deal?

#4

We should be able to offer contracts to any and all of our about-to-be-free agents at any time, before or after the expansion draft. The only thing that would prevent us from doing so is if Ottawa selects them in the draft, and then they would be need to offer them contracts and have them accepted before the free agency deadline to prevent other teams from making offers after the deadline. But Desjardins has stated that he won't be selecting any potential free agents.

I don't see the difference between offering these players contract just before the draft (so they don't have time to sign them until after) and waiting to offer them contracts after the draft. As long as the player is signed to a new contract before the free agency deadline, no other team can talk to him about playing for them.

#5

Interesting list of Free Agents,to say the least.IMO 5 of the 7 are must signs(Burris,Johnson,Beswick,Davis and Lawrence)
The last two(Congi,Scott)not so much,our f.g kicking was shakey at best this year and needs upgrading,so I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the team let Congi go,as for Scott as our LS we have King and Fortin on the roster who are capable of replacing him,as well as backing up on the line and at safety and are more dimensional in their play than Scott is who as far as I know is listed strictly as a LS only.This team has very few players who can be considered vets and is a young team still.We need players who have been around as leaders like Hank,J.J and Beswick. Davis and Lawrence are both still young with a ton of upside to them and we need them to cement the continuity of the roster going into the 2014 season.I realize that some people will say who would they get to replace Congi??? Well that remains to be seen,but one thing is sure one of our weak spots this year was fg kicking and I'm sure the Cats will find somebody who is more reliable in that department.

#6

I’m going to laugh my head off if Marcel does exactly the opposite and he should. He can talk to these players before drafting them to see if they are interested. Worst thing that could happen is 5000.00 fine as established by Cohon for poaching a coach under contract… Peanuts…

According to Rider fans as long as you pay the fine its all good.

#7

Here is the entire league list of all pending Free Agents.....We are looking in way better shape than the other 7 clubs when you look at the list,most teams have anywhere from 15-20 potential FA. It's going to be a very interesting off season when you figure in the draft and the long lists of FA that some clubs will have to deal with, it looks like plenty of quality players could become available for the 2014 season.

[url=http://cfl.ca/article/market-bound-2014-potential-free-agents-list]http://cfl.ca/article/market-bound-2014 ... gents-list[/url]
#8

Well depends how you see it. I see it as a negative because Ottawa will have more signed prospects to choose from.

#9

Potential # of Free Agents per team

Winnipeg.............23 players
Calgary................21 players
Saskatchewan......19 players
Montreal.............18 players
Toronto..............15 players
Edmonton...........11 players
Hamilton.............7 players
British Columbia...6 players

Right now it looks like us and the Lions are by far in the best shape when it comes to signed players for 2014 season.

#10

If Ottawa is true to its word they will not sign "about to be free agents". So protecting an about to be free is a moot point. ONLY IF Ottawa leaves "about to be free agents" alone. All sounds good until an "about to be free agent" is unprotected and gets taken by Ottawa. IE: Cory Sheet just as an example goes unprotected do you think Ottawa is going to take the chance on getting him to sign before February or say "oh my gosh we had better not take him the Riders would be upset". So Ottawa takes him. Offer him a huge contract that the Riders cant even talk to him about. Ottawa convinces him how great things are in Ottawa. That`s the difference IMHO. By the way I used Sheets for the purposes of an example! :smiley:

#11

Yes, it would be tampering.

I know other people are making suggestions around this but not much can be done without opening up the CFL/CFLPA collective agreement to change the standard contract terms.

#12

And that is definitely a risk. It would also be risky for Ottawa to do this, as there would be no guarantee that they’d be able to sign the player. I could see them doing it with a couple of players, but whether those players would be the marquee players or the prospect players, I have no idea. But I don’t see them doing it with a QB, as they only have two QB picks.

#13

In order for a team to be punished for tampering, there would need to be evidence of tampering. A free agent is free to sign with any team, period. A team is free to negotiate with their own players while they are still under contract. Even if the team and the player don't agree to a new contract, neither side is forced to erase their memory of any conversations they had. The issue is that unlike an actual renewed contract, any "nudge nudge wink wink" understanding between the team and the player would be unenforceable in the event that either side unilaterally changes their mind later.

Imagine this scenario: Player A is a pending free agent. Ottawa drafts player A. Player A waits for the official start of free agency. Player A signs with Team X (not Ottawa). What is the League going to do? Can they COMPEL Player A to sign a contract with Ottawa??? Can they prohibit Team X from offering a contract to Player A??? Either of those attempted enforcement options would open the league up to a lawsuit from Player A.

#14

I'll further suggest that the CFL probably tied their own hands on tampering enforcement when they let Toronto poach Chris Jones from Calgary with only a couple thousand dollar fine. A coach, not a player, but it's still a precedent.

#15

Don't agree with your logic here. If a player is selected by Ottawa in the expansion draft, then from the draft onward, they are under contract to Ottawa until the contract expires (free agency). The rule (I assume it's from the CBA) is that a team cannot negotiate with a player while he is under contract to another team. That would mean the player's previous team would not be permitted to negotiate with him again until he becomes a free agent.

Of course the long history of signings announced within minutes of the official start of free agency suggest that the rules aren't really enforced anyway, but that a whole other kettle of fish.

#16

I added the following statement from my post back in. We are in total agreement here.

The problem with this is that these players will not be free agents until February. So if Ottawa were to talk to any of them before the draft, which is before February, that would be tampering. And as stated above, if Ottawa were to draft one of these players, if any other team, including the team he was drafted from, talked to him before the free agent deadline, that would also be tampering.

Of course, as you say, there would have to be evidence. The teams doing the tampering wouldn't admit it, and I suspect that the player and his agent wouldn't be talking about it either.

#17

As for not giving conji a new contract in place or protected. some of you seem to forget the story that if justin medlock doesn't hook up with an nfl team for the season in 2013 we might be able to get him to come back for 2014

#18

Looking at the entire CFL FA list team by team,and trying to guess who we might lose in the off season to the draft,retirement,Free Agency etc. I think that the team should be upgrading in possibly two key Cdn positions,WR and FB
First off IMO our Cdn depth at receiver is lacking,Fantuz is solid of course,but I'm thinking that we could possibly lose Giguere to the RB's in the draft,leaving only Stala and Charbonneau as our two only other Cdn rec. on the current roster.Stala was little used this year and will be 35 yrs old next season,as for Charbonneau he hasn't really worked out yet after 2 seasons and just might be a career back-up,never a potential starter.As for the FB position,once again I feel there's a good chance of losing Delahunt in the draft and Diedrick is going to be 35 yrs old next season and his best days are clearly behind him.So looking ahead at who might be available in free agency in these two positions,I came up with a wish list of potential free agents who might be a good fit and help upgrade in these areas.

Potential Free Agent Receivers

Mike Bradwell..........Tor....5th season,age 27,played at Mac,career totals-86 catches/1040 yds/12.1avg/4tds
Rory Kohlert............Wnp..2nd season,age 25,was on Cats PR-2011,last season-45 catches/493yds/11avg/4tds

Anthony Parker........Calg..3rd season,age 24,1rst rd draft pick-last season-21 catches/217yds/10.3avg/2tds
Akeem Foster..........Wnp..4th season,age 26,career totals-67catches/995yds/14.9avg/9tds

Potential Free Agent Fullbacks

MP.Pontbriand.......Wnp...3rd season,age 31,Laval U.-6'2",233 LBS
Tim St.Pierre.........Calg....6th season,age 27,from Hamilton,Westdale High,6',241lbs
Stu Foord.............B.C.....6th season,age 28,career totals-59 carries/325yds/5.5avg/3tds..5'11",195lbs

I also feel that with Congi being a potential FA,an upgrade here might be in the works,I would love to see the Cats go after Milo from Saskatchewan who had an outstanding 2013 season going 46 of 52 for an 88.5% fg avg.

Pat Watkins is also a potential FA from Toronto and might be a good fit with a young secondary next season.

So anyway that's my wish list for the Cats in the FA market.....thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Did I miss anybody?anybody you might want to include?

#19

This is precisely why I would be protecting both Fantuz and Giguere, and Delahunt in the second round instead of protecting the o-line. We have depth at non-import o-line and can afford to lose one of our starters, but we can't afford to lose any of these three players.

We may, however, need to look at bringing in another backup non-import receiver. Stala may not be around next year (either retiring or cut, who knows?), and Charbonneau-Campeau could be picked up by the REDBLACKS (I really hate the whole uppercase name thing). So yes, Kohlert would be a good pickup there. Another option would be Jabari Arthur. Might be a bit of a bidding war on both players though, assuming Winnipeg and Calgary don't sign them between the draft and February.

#20

Another good option there,CatsFaninOttawa,I totally overlooked Arthur when perusing the Free Agent list.Jabari is 31 years of age,has played 6 years and had stats last year that were nearly identical to Giguere's stats.I also remember Arthur snagged a 52 yarder against us this year for a season long T.D pass for him as well.Here is the comparison between the two last year,listed below

Giguere..........41 catches/549yards/13.4yd avg./52 longest/1td
Arthur............41 catches/510yards/12.4yd avg/52 longest/4td

I agree with what your'e saying though,and even if we somehow don't lose either Giguere or Delahunt,IMO looking at the depth at Receiver and Fullback and the ages of both Stala and Deidrick,signing one or two of these players in FA couldn't hurt.I also read somewhere that the Cats are looking at possibly converting C.O.Prime from LB to FB next year.Prime certainly has the size for the switch(6'1",255lbs)and it wouldn't be the first time that the Cats have done this.Two years ago,they converted Barranchea over to FB/TE from LB in his final year here before retiring after 7 yrs playing LB.