Hugh Charles showed how explosive he can be on punt returns. Brandon West seems to be an all purpose back who can catch out of the backfield, run the ball effectively, and most importantly block for a pass oriented Roughrider offense. Wes Cates is getting up there in age, but is still effective as that extra blocker in the back field and still has a little bit left in the tank to run the football. I dont think it would be a wise decision to keep three import running backs, so who goes and who stays?
If possible try to put West on the Practice Roster then I say by next season release or trade Cates for Draft Picks then activate West and start Charles?
I dont know if Charles has what it takes to be a solid all around running back in this league. Sure he is explosive as a runner, but lacks the blocking ability which is key to the Riders offense. I would lean towards Cates and West if I were the GM.
After tonight's game, there's no question Cates starts. As between West and Charles, neither really shone tonight. Not sure where that will go.
I have never been a huge Charles fan. When he is in he shows flashes, but they are very rare.(as are his appearances). I say keep West and Cates with Cates starting.
I think Cates starts, but the offence would be silly not to implement a split backs package to get both him and Charles on the field from time to time. As far as West goes, I think he's got a lot of potential as well. Pretty sure Charles will get the kick returners job, looked like they were trying out Jackson in the secondary. Should be an interesting week, can't wait for July 3rd!!
I think Jackson and Charles will be on roster and will be primary returners. Tristan would double as extra DB and Hugh as RB.
But West looks good. Somehow they need to find a spot. He might be one of the 4 extra roster spots.
I like Stu Foord last night. He showed up. As a RB he had to show that he needs to be a part of the Cates/West/Charles discussion and I think he did. And he needed to, if any other Cdn could be as useful on teams as Stu I think he might have been in jeopardy.
Our kickers better leran to hit some FG's. When you miss you have to tackle and Stu Foord took a nasty block. Guys will get injured at the expense of kickers that can't do the job. We lost Congi due to shite teams play and this cannot happen anymore. Eddie missed a FG last night and got planted...........what would we do if he would have been injured?
Oh Luca, where are you..............
Keep them all - we don’t want any other team getting their hands on any of them.
What is the status of Luca? We are in desparate need of someone to not only kick field goals but to make them as well.
The ineptitude of our field goal kickers has me scared. It would be great if we could score TD’s all the time and not need FG kickers but there is going to be many a game that the end result will be decided by the foot.
charles can't catch good enough to replace cates, and neither can replace his size blocking. I would keep them both, and consider using one as a FB backup.
Charles looks good catching the ball, I can’t remember him dropping the ball on a catch. Keep all three I hope. Man does Thigpen look good in Hamilton, wish he was still here.
Neither have the size to be a traditional CFL fullback, but who says we have to go with tradition??? Ratio might have alot to say about your idea though. The ratio clearly kept Charles out last year (coaches said as much). Surely it will be even harder to keep two imports behind Cates - not that it is not possible, but something has to give somewhere to make it happen.
Crap I forgot to check, did West get cut then or did we keep all three?
All three are currently on the 46. I doubt that will be the case on Sunday but who knows.
Yeah, I would suspect that one will end up on practice roster, but players on the practice roster are technically FAs for 48 hours after the Saturday roster announcements. This means that by supper time tonight (48 hours later) we will see teams doing shuffling…people that they did not wan to risk losing will be put on the practice roster, and others will be put on active roster in place.