WR's overall looks weak

Jim Popp has secured exclusive rights to Tommy Shuler but the GM’s actions have not indicated any serious interest. First, he re-signed Johnathan Bryant, slot receiver for run-happy Georgia Southern who caught 39 passes in 4 years and followed that up with the signing of B.J. Cunningham, Michigan States all-time stats leader at wide receiver, who had 218 catches, to the practice squad.

Tommy Shuler’s special relationship with Rakeem Cato and his 322 catches in college, mostly from Cato, have found no logical place inside Popp’s mind.

Shuler will need a proper camp and Cato will need a proper contract before this reunion makes sense.

With the exception of S.J. Green, the Als have the weakest Int. WR's in the CFL; while most other teams have new/young /good WR's,the Als brought in other teams rejects and players passed their prime.-Collins,Lewis and Stamps- During the past years,except Duron Carter, there have been no new/rookie additions to Int. WR's.

Looking at some other teams, you have Terrence Toliver and Luke Tasker in Hamilton,Kevin Elliott.Tori Gurley and Vidal Hazelton in Toronto,- the total salaries of 2 of these 3 rookies are definitely less than Fred Stamps; I would take anyone of them ahead of Stamps or Lewis- Jeff Fuller and Eric Rogers in Calgary and Ryan Smith in Saskatchewan.

Montreal has probably the most expensive budget in terms of scouts, yet the results are not there. Beside the Int. WR's, where are the younger and good DB's? No depth at Int. DT. Corvey Irvin was a Calgary reject,last season.

Quite easy to blame the coaches, but Jim Popp is not helping them.

Richard

I agree with HfxTC - do this the right way as he describes. It won't happen this season.

Last season we had SJ Green + Duron Carter (2 studs) + London + Deslauriers. It appeared that Popp was showcasing Carter to the NFL, and Green was visibly upset about not being Top Gun as well as the general fiasco at the QB position. Now Carter is with the Colts, SJ has a new contract, and is clearly the #1 guy in the depth chart. And he has a QB who can deliver.

Are we "soft" after having brought in Fred Stamps and Nik Lewis? No ... although these 2 receivers are over the hump career-wise ... so younger guys will be needed to step-up as early as next season.

I haven't seen enough of Sam Giguere to be comfortable with his presence, and younger guys like Cody Hoffman and BJ Cunningham may have potential to start, but are still unproven in this league.

The receiver rebuild will be interesting to watch, but I think it will happen after this season, and into next year's TC. A good role model is the way Calgary reloaded, bringing in Jeff Fuller, Eric Rogers and Greg Wilson to supplement and eventually replace their older receivers (Marquay McDaniel and Joe West) - and yes, they did dump Nik Lewis to make it all possible and affordable.

You can blame Popp for the Collins situation, but bringing in experienced receivers was a good move to help out our rookie QB. Stamps is getting hot, and Lewis has got sure hands, provides excellent blocking and drives through the pile. Hoffman was doing good before his injury.

And in fairness to Popp, London retired at training camp.

You can blame Popp for the Collins situation, but bringing in experienced receivers was a good move to help out our rookie QB.
Sorry to nit-pick, but that is not accurate. The decision to bring in Lewis and Stamps was made [b]a long time before[/b] QB injuries thrust rookie Cato into the starter's role. I can't give Jim Popp credit based on the scenario you described.

Who really knows what Popp was thinking? My guess is that he knew how inaccurate Crompton is, and wanted experienced hands to go after erratic passes.

Forget about accurate hands that don't run much faster than a turtle and is roughly 25 pounds overweight. Let's give a chance to rookies that can run and catch. Toronto,with its 3 rookie WR's, is rank first in average yards game,after week 6, at 313.2 yards a game. The Als and their accurate hands? Ranked eight with average of 242.6 yards a game. Only BC,at 241.0 yards a game,has done worst.

When you watch other games, you see many rookies at many positions,that want to win.The Als? Many overpaid veterans.

Against the pass, the Als and their veteran DB's rank seventh,allowing 284.0 yards a game. Only Saskatchewan at 286.3 and BC at 308.4 are worse. The 2 best? Edmonton at 228.4 and Ottawa at 236.0.

I hope for a win against Ottawa, but it will be difficult.

Richard

Right, because there is NO DIFFERENCE between Toronto and us except in terms of the youth of our receivers. Has absolutely nothing to do with continuity and some of the top offensive minds in the league (Milanovich, Brady) coaching up guys like Trevor Harris. Uh huh. :lol:

I'm not so sure I'd put Brady in the ranks of 'top offensive minds' just yet. He's still learning his craft I think, and let's face it, Steinauer gave him quite a pounding behind the woodshed last night. The Cats' D flummoxed Brady all night long until garbage time.

Mind you, that's one ferocious defence that would give even an experienced 'top offensive mind' fits. . .

Marc Trestman would have had problems figuring out how to successfully move an offence last night. So I guess I shouldn't be too hard on Brady. . .

I would advise that Jamal Richardson has just been released by the Riders and is available, but then someone would have to call 911 for Richard. :smiley:

I think we have a tendency to take results from one game and extrapolate it to a season long thing. Nobody was complaining about our receivers after the Hamilton game. Stamps was the leading receiver. This past game Logan had one return for a TD, almost should have had another. If he does nothing against Ottawa suddenly he will be old again.

Just find it a little too early to draw radical conclusions on things.

Yes, especially to the part in bold. Hamilton’s D is going to make any team look silly, given the strength they have at DT. If we had D-line talent like they do, getting pressure would be a lot easier.

As for Brady, everyone said the same thing about Milanovich before he jumped to Toronto – is he for real, or just a Trestman clone? Regardless of how you slice it, Milanovich/Brady as an offensive coaching unit have done great work with not one or two but three QBs in the past three years – Ray, Collaros, and Harris. Their offense is consistently productive no matter who’s under center and they generally have no trouble finishing off drives. What happened to them in Hamilton was an exception, not the rule.

Brady may be still learning his craft, but he has paid his dues the right way since becoming a coach. Three years as receivers coach, one year as OC / QB coach under Trestman, 2.5 years as OC / QB coach under Milanovich. Put Brady/Milanovich against Schonert/Higgins and tell me honestly which coaching duo you trust to run an offense. :wink:

Well, I think you know my answer to that question!

Crompton is a still a rookie QB, is he not?

Richard is probably looking at contracts not production. Lewis and Stamps are productive. Calgary cut Lewis to pay for BLM's new contract. Same thing will happen when Cato gets his extension in the off season. Popp won't be able to afford as many vets but right now that's where he's chosen to put the little bit of extra he has by not having to pay top dollars for his QB1.

A lot has to do with schemes as well.

With a stiff like Crompton at QB, I don't blame Popp at all for wanting to surround him with veteran receiving talent. And let's not forget that we had no way of knowing that Brandon London would retire a few days into training camp, or that Hoffman would essentially start the season on the 6-game IR...

I don't care about contracts; I am looking at production/age/speed. Presently Lewis is ranked 24th amongst CFL WR's and Stamps 31first.

Richard

But we all know that the media loves Lewis and his “Nik Names.” :roll:

So they are exactly where you would expect a #2 and a #3 receiver to be. I d ok nt see the problem

The problem for Johnny is that Stamps and Lewis are certainly making six figures, and Giguere is probably in the low 6 figures as well. For 300K or more, we are not getting good production!

And what's wrong with Giguere? He was a solid 500 yard per season guy during his years in Hamilton. Is he out of gas? Or is it possible that Schonert doesn't know how to use the receiver who plays on the strong side, of the wider canadian field?