From the opening kickoff you could tell that we were seeing something different. This kid is fast. During his TD run I wouldn’t be surprised if he scorched the turf and yelled “meep meep” like the Roadrunner. Once he turned on the afterburners it was a sight to behold. It’s not only his speed but he seems to have the moves to juke himself out of a phonebooth if he needed to. With that shiftiness he reminds me of a young Larry Taylor.
Hopefully the ST Coach can set up the blocking schemes to help spring this little dynamo on a consistent basis. We might have finally found the next Thiggy.
Not sold on Ryan yet. I know this site had the debate about removing a couple of Mike Jones long receptions and his number don’t look great.
Well no denying Ryan looked awesome on his 104 yard TD return BUT take that one away and he was:
6 punt returns for 22 yards and a fumble (Hell Paul Bennett used to give us more using his 5.1 40 speed to run straight ahead for 8 yards and a cloud of dust for fellow longtime fans)
6 kick returns for 114 also weak numbers.
Lets see if he has a more consistent outing next game as 1 good return in 13 attempts is not good enough.
Good point. Safeway apparently is willing to bet a million dollars it only happens once a game at the most, and not twice. Even once a game is worth $25,000 in electronics, so I'm thinking it doesn't happen all that often either.
And take away the fumble and add the 104 yard return for a TD, He would of had a fantastic game.
It was a great play, It shouldn’t be disregarded, just as the fumble shouldn’t
Should we blame the returner for missed blocks, holding or illegal block penalties?
Maybe if somebody didn’t miss a block, that fumble recovery wouldn’t have happened!
I’d give him another chance.
When calculating the average return yardage of players from other teams, do we also need to deduct any long returns first? I'm thinking that would take their averages down a bit as well.
Honestly? Looking at a punt returner in the CFL, the #1 question is: “Does he have the capability to break one and go all the way?” In Ryan’s case, it’s a resounding “YES!”. Then you can move on to question #2: “Is he productive enough the rest of the time?”
Lots of returners come and go from this league without ever taking one all the way. The fact that Ryan did it in his first game doesn’t guarantee he’s a keeper, but it certainly means he merits a closer look.
Guys you are putting too much emphasis on his stats in his CFL debut. What excites me about this guy is his physical skillset and game-breaking potential. We haven’t seen this type of explosiveness for a few years now. He has the motor and shiftiness to really tear it up out there. If Ryan had O’Shea or Killam as his ST co-ordinator he would be the talk of the league right now.
Gantz Jr. better find a way to set up some better blocking for this kid. I believe it was a 5 man wedge that cleared the lanes for him on that TD return. But then they kept going back to it and Calgary caught on. It would be a shame to not utilize that speed to it’s max potential.
The fumble was a learning moment. If he fumbles once every game then we have a problem. But it was his CFL debut and he never had to deal with such hard hitting and ferocious CFL tacklers before. Ask Manziel. 8)
Side comment - the fact that its now the Safeway/Sobeys contest and included Northern Ontario, but not Southern Ontario and Quebec is a joke for a national league.
I’d say he’s our most successful returner this year… given all the angst on these boards over the return game, I’d say he’s earned another couple starts at least.
He’s shown he has the speed to gain the corner and go, that’s all you can ask.