Significant loss for Toronto. Expect Andy Fantuz to have a big game!
Watkins plays corner, so even if he was playing he would rarely ever cover Fantuz or any slotback.
He was matched up against him most of the last game.
Yep. They had Watkins playing man coverage on Andy quite a bit last Friday.
update from Drew Edwards
The will knots are missing some players too!
[b]Here's the news ahead of the Ticats Thanksgiving Day clash with the Argos...
• the Ticats have listed middle linebacker Jamall Johnson as the starter, despite the fact that he missed all three days of practice this week. Head coach Kent Austin said that Johnson will be a game time decision.
• Hamilton made just one change to the 46-man roster, adding import linebacker Ray Shipman and removing defensive end Craig Masrshall. Shipman will play in a reserve linebacker role (and likely on special teams) if Johnson can't go. Nate Bussey would get the start in the middle, however.
• the Ticats have also released DB Kevin Barnes, LS Aaron Crawford and OL Jessie Green. Barnes had a start but seems to have fallen out of favour, Crawford was insurance as a long snapper but with Neil King and Arnaud Gason-Nadon available behind Kevin Scott, that was no longer neccessary. Green was here three days.
• the big news out of Toronto is that short corner Pat Watkins - he's six-foot-five and probably their best cover guy - is out for personal reasons. Head coach Scott Milanovich didn't want to be specific, other than to say that "nobody is in any trouble."
• two other significant changes for Toronto (they made a whopping seven changes to their 46-man): running back Chad Kackert and Canadian safety Matt Black are both out. Black is signifcant because it requires to the Argos to make a ratio change (they'll make up for it on the defensive line.)
• the Argos have four new starters on defence (and another guy playing in a different spot) and two on defence (Ray and Kackert). Oh, and receiver John Chiles hurt his hammy this week is in a game time decision.
• best quote of the day was from Ticats QB Henry Burris on Ricky Ray: "We've been rivals forever. It feels like I'm Neo and he's the bad guy."[/b]
Drew is somewhat mistaken on that point. The Argos have been playing extra NIs for several weeks – last week they started five on offence and three on defence, and often had four on defence at the same time. Black’s injury won’t help their secondary but should not cause any problems with their non-import deployment, other than to reduce their flexibility a little.