Als sign Dominic Rhodes

Popp has signed former NFL RB Dominic Rhodes for two years :

[url=http://sports.ca.msn.com/top-stories/alouettes-sign-former-nfl-star-rhodes]http://sports.ca.msn.com/top-stories/al ... tar-rhodes[/url]

Competition at training camp,although Dominic is 34 years old. Has not played in the NFL since 2010; played in the United Football League in 2011 and 2012. Did well. Best of luck to him.

CB Jordan Malbin is a great addition; needed competition in defensive backfield.Only 24 years old.

The Als will have a great team in 2013.

Richard

A top RB at one time, age is a concern but if he's still got anything left in the tank he's go an opportunity in MTL with Whitaker not coming back and basically the top spot becoming an open competition with Messam, Jennings, Anderson, and devine. Should make for an interesting camp.

Meh. He'll be lucky to survive camp. Just a standard 1+1 deal so if he's not ready to compete or other guys outperform him in TC he'll get cut.

I like bringing Mabin back. We badly need young DBs.

much like the Ahman Green signing a couple of years ago. much ado about nothing

Ahman Green, O.J. Santiago, Quincy Carter, Jerry Porter ... we'll likely be adding Rhodes's name to that list in a few months. :wink:

yup agreed. nothing to lose however

Or another Edwards who stayed for a couple of seasons. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

Rhodes is a quality back who has not had any career altering injuries and has relatively low mileage on him for his age. He's also the perfect size for the CFL at 5.9 205 and his a great pass catcher out of the backfield. I think he's coming to Montreal because he wants to play ball and I think he is a good fit. With Messam, Jennings,Devine,Anderson and Rhodes we have a nice "stable" of running backs. I've been asking for a couple years now that a heavy running game is what this offense was missing to free up opponenets clogging shallow zone.

It will be interesting to see who will be at the mini camp in Florida this year. It should be an indictor where the focus will be at the start of the season, O,D, or STs . I don't know if admin releases the names of team members there, but I do know it sets a tone for TC, which is why Rhodes is getting a look. It will also increase the intensity with high quaility rooster hopefuls.

True enough. I’m just not getting excited is all. He could stick around, but most likely he’ll be cut. Either way, it’s good to bring in all the talent we can to compete for the RB spot.

La mise sous contrat de Mabin m'intéresse plus que celle de Rhodes.

Mabin a pratiqué avec les Alouettes, a tenté sa chance dans la NFL et Popp le fait revenir avec l'équipe. Ce gars-là doit l'inspirer en quelque chose pour qu'il le fasse. Osaisai n'a qu'à bien se tenir.

Yesterday on TSN 690 Popp said there is nothing to lose by bringing Rhodes to camp. Money is not an issue with him, he just wants to continue playing football. Popp also said he could serve as a mentor to some of the younger backs.

But I don`t really see him beating out Jennings, Messam, etc.

Rhodes is in top shape and he will add leadership, toughness and experience to the group.

This look like a worn out back to anybody ?

[url]KTXS Anchor Mari Cockerell Interviews Dominic Rhodes About His Big Country Football Camp - YouTube

i haven't been following the latest developments, but noticed that Brandon Whitaker is no longer on the Als' roster or injured list.

Is he still with the team? Did he sign a contract elsewhere?

With what we saw last season, I think the Als will be strong at the RB position, and I sincerely hope we will have a good replacement for Brandon, and depth in case of injury.

Whitaker is a free agent and therefore not on the Als roster.

He is rehabbing his knee, and his first choice once healthy is to try the NFL. To me it is all going to come down to how healthy his knee is. Nobody - NFL or CFL - will give him a chance until he has a clean bill of health.

Thanks for that, ideal.

I don’t want to throw a monkey-wrench into his comeback, but an ACL injury is just about the worst kind of injury for a RB. In Brandon’s case, his ability to cut, find a seam, turn on the jets, requires two knees in perfect condition. Part of me would like to see him back in an Als’ uni, but something tells me his days with the Als are over and maybe, just maybe, his football career is over.

I wish him all the best.

At this point, I feel good about the RBs we have. Obviously, it would be super if Whitaker re-signed and was back at 100%, but Popp has done all he can to strengthen the RB position. You have to think that a backfield of Jennings, Rhodes, Anderson, Devine, and Messam will produce at least one guy capable of carrying the starter’s load.

Frankly, my inclination would be to start Jennings, using Messam or Rhodes as his backup (whoever wins the TC battle; the other would be released) and Devine as the change-of-pace scatback. I’ve been wanting us to go to a power ground game ever since last season, when we demonstrated that we could run an effective possession game in a double TE set with Jennings pounding the rock Pringle-style. It helps keep AC clean, it controls the clock for us, and as Hfx has pointed out, it tendency-busts defenses sitting in shallow zone coverage, thereby giving our receivers better access to those routes. I loved the WC offense we ran for years under Trestman but the league has adapted and I think it’s time to turn the page.

Je ne parlerai pas de Rhodes maintenant, car je ne le connais pas vraiment.

Pour ma part, j’aimerais bien que Messam soit mis à contribution, mais je crains qu’il ne soit plus fragile qu’il en a l’air. Également, il a encore des progrès à faire comme bloqueur. Jennings a bien couru à l’aile, mais n’a pas eu de très bons résultats lorsqu’il s’agissait de frapper la ligne en plein centre, malgré son gabarit plus puissant que ceux de Whitaker et Anderson. Messam peut frapper la ligne de front et aller chercher 6-7 verges là où aucun gain ne semblait possible.

Par contre, Jennings bloque assez bien et a d’assez bonnes mains. Ainsi, il pourrait être mis à contribution comme deuxième ailier rapproché et ainsi compliquer la couverture adverse avec un gars qui peut avoir assez de vitesse pour se dégager et faire des gains entre la ligne défensive et la tertiaire.

Cela dit, ni Jennings ni Messam ne pourront être des demis qui vont distancer les demis défensifs adverses. Ils n’ont pas assez de vitesse pour ça. C’était là que Cobourne et Whitaker pouvaient constituer un avantage par rapport aux coureurs en puissance. Lorsqu’ils s’échappaient, ils pouvaient réaliser de très longs gains. On ne pourrait s’attendre à la même chose avec Jennings ou Messam.

Le risque d’alterner Jennigs, Messam, Anderson ou Devine, c’est que l’équipe annonce ses couleurs en mettant les petits demis sur le terrain. Lorsque les adversaires les verront arriver, ils joueront automatiquement une défensive contre le jeu au sol, sachant que nos poids plume ne sont pas là d’abord pour bloquer. C’est une question de probabililtés.

J’ai confiance que nos porteurs de ballon seront utilisés adéquatement et qu’ils feront partie d’une attaque renouvelée. Ce sera une attaque qui va s’inscrire dans la continuité, mais avec les variantes qui viendront lui imprimer sa propre personnalité.

Nobody runs straight ahead in the CFL regularly. You run between the tackles when possible, but really, to have success, you have to be able to bounce outside to take advantage of the wider CFL field.

Messam peut frapper la ligne de front et aller chercher 6-7 verges là où aucun gain ne semblait possible.
Agreed, but there are a lot of question marks surrounding Messam. Is his conditioning what it should be? Can he be an every-down back again? Can he block for AC?
Cela dit, ni Jennings ni Messam ne pourront être des demis qui vont distancer les demis défensifs adverses. Ils n'ont pas assez de vitesse pour ça. C'était là que Cobourne et Whitaker pouvaient constituer un avantage par rapport aux coureurs en puissance. Lorsqu'ils s'échappaient, ils pouvaient réaliser de très longs gains. On ne pourrait s'attendre à la même chose avec Jennings ou Messam.
Three points:

[ol]- Cobourne, in 2013, would never be able to outrun enemy DBs in pursuit. He doesn’t have that breakaway speed anymore, and admitted that himself last season in Hamilton. They went to Chevon Walker for that stuff.

  • Whitaker hasn’t proven he’s at 100% and capable of breaking those long runs either. An ACL injury is very serious for a running back.
  • I’m less interested in big flashy runs and more interested in grinding out 5-7 yards consistently, run after run. If the big runs happen, great, but I don’t want to build our offense around it. As I said earlier, I want us to adopt more of a power running game built on grinding the other team down by repeatedly running the ball.[/ol]
Le risque d'alterner Jennigs, Messam, Anderson ou Devine, c'est que l'équipe annonce ses couleurs en mettant les petits demis sur le terrain. Lorsque les adversaires les verront arriver, ils joueront automatiquement une défensive contre le jeu au sol, sachant que nos poids plume ne sont pas là d'abord pour bloquer. C'est une question de probabililtés.
I should clarify what I meant. I didn't mean to suggest that Devine would replace Jennings on pass or trick plays. I meant that Devine could rotate with Lavoie to give us option run possibilities and give opposing defenses something to think about (similar to the way we used Hawkins and Cobourne or Haskins and Pringle/Phillips in years past). I agree with you that we can't show our tendencies via formation or personnel pre-snap.