Blue Bombers sign seven Americans

WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have signed American wide receivers BJ Muckelvene, TJ Hammonds, and Tavonn Salter, as well as American linebacker Darian Taylor, American running back Vance Barnes, American defensive back Javon Jackson and quarterback Jake Floriea.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.cfl.ca/2022/05/10/blue-bombers-sign-seven-americans/

BJ Muckelvene (5’ 10" 180 lbs) sounds like a serious pickup at WR with 1,713 yards under his belt and two-time All-SAC honors.

Darian Taylor (6’ 3" 214 lbs) could be that tall thin linebacker who doubles as a coverage guy in those situations where some pesky tall receiver is absolutely killing us.

It’s a good thing we keep bringing in QB’s. Looks like our previously newest guy, string bean Chase Litton (6’5" 230 lbs) decided to take up knitting rather than report to training camp. So the addition of this even newer guy keeps us at three backup possibilities behind Zach Collaros (6’ 0" 222 lbs):

Dru Brown (5’ 11" 201 lbs)
Jake Floriea (6’ 1" 215 lbs)
Dakota Prukop (6’ 1" 208 lbs)

Dru Brown has the most experience with us with a whopping one game under his belt in sub zero conditions in which he completed 7 out of 14 passes for 49 yards. I’m cautiously optimistic that Dru can do much better at room temperature. By the way, ‘Dru can do’ might become his campaign slogan if he ever runs for office after football.

Dakota Prukop has the most ‘CFL Experience’, suiting up for 49 games over 4 seasons where he managed to complete a grand total of 36 out of 56 passes (64%) for 467 yards, 4 touchdowns and 4 interceptions while rushing 11 times for 39 yards. I’m hoping that Dakota can morph into that affordable Game Managing Backup QB we’ve been looking for who can keep us in the hunt should Collaros wind up in the shop undergoing repairs.

As for Jake Floriea, well he just got here so we’ll just have to wait and see how he does in the CFL. His passing stats in college were meh, but his scrambling abilities might be something we can use on third down sneaks.

I wouldn’t be surprised if our backup comes from Edmonton after Chris Jones makes his final cuts in June. He’s clever but not clever enough to hide all those bodies from us on his practice roster.

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