Lions' 2014 Free Agent camps ... 4 OL Signed by Leos

[WestCoastJoe]

http://bclions.com/page/team_tryouts

BC Lions free agent camps will be held in a number of American cities in April and May.

Camps are run by members of the club's scouting staff as well as select position coaches.

Testing at all camps includes: 40-Yard timing, pro agility shuttle, basic football drills and 1-on-1's.

Each participant is required to pay a $100 registration fee (no checks). These fees cover the cost of field bookings, insurance and other costs associated with staging a free agent camp. If you have highlight film please bring it along to the workout.

Important: Any player ultimately invited to BC Lions training camp must have a valid US passport in order to travel across the border into Canada and return to the United States. In the event you are invited to training camp, please ensure that you can obtain a passport before May 15, 2014.

A schedule for this year's free agent camps is listed below.

Sunday, April 6, 2014 : Fort Lauderdale/Boca Raton, Florida
Location: Boca Raton Community High School
1501 Northwest 15th Court, Boca Raton, Florida
Registration: 9:00 am / Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

Thursday, April 24, 2014 – Dallas, Texas
Location: Pennington Field (Bedford, TX)
1501 Central Dr., Bedford, TX, USA
Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

Friday, April 25, 2014 – Las Vegas, Nevada
Location: Ed Fountain Park
1400 N Decatur Blvd - Las Vegas, NV
Registration: 12:00 pm
Testing: 12:30 pm
Surface: Field Turf

Saturday, May 3, 2014 – Atlanta, Georgia
Location: Georgia State University practice facility
188 Martin Luther King Jr Dr. - Atlanta, GA
Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

Sunday, May 4, 2014 – Washington, DC
Location: Bishop McNamara High School
6800 Marlboro Pike - Forestville, MD
Registration: 8:30 am
Testing: 9:00 am
Surface: FieldTurf

Saturday, May 17, 2014 – Seattle, Washington
Location: Rainier Beach High School
8815 Seward Park Avenue South - Seattle, WA
Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

Highlight film can be sent to the address below:

Neil McEvoy, Player Personnel Coordinator
BC Lions Football Club
10605 City Parkway
Surrey, BC V3T 4C8
(Label your package as Educational Materials)

[South Pender]

And herein lie our best hopes for D-linemen....

[TheLionKing]

There's always seem to be a gem emerging from these free agent camps. Wonder who it's going to be this year.

[Rids]

Good group of camps. Not as many as in previous years but they are in good talent areas.

[David]

Let's also not forget that other teams stage these too - some well before the Lions. Hamilton has already staged 5 and Edmonton has conducted a whopping 14 free agent tryout camps to date (with more planned).

Still, I think Wally, Neil and their scouting team use these camps as much to assess players they've pre-scouted as to find "diamonds in the rough." In other words, in many cases they've already recruited many of the players who will come out of these camps. They just need to see them perform "live" and put them through tests to make sure.


DH

[Rids]

Edmonton will have at least 21 open tryouts in the US by the time training camp is scheduled to open. That's the most I've seen in the CFL. Haven't heard if they are still planning their Canadian open tryout that they've held for several years.

Others (as they've been posted...not always published on their websites):
Calgary - 11
Hamilton - 10
Montreal - 4
Ottawa - 4
Saskatchewan - 0 open tryouts, private workouts
Toronto - 6
Winnipeg - 7

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.bclions.com/fe_dev.php/artic ... nsive-line

The BC Lions Football Club announced the signing of four import offensive linemen this morning including Andre Ramsey, Stephon Heyer, Garrett Chisolm and Jason Slowey.

Ramsey returns to the Lions after attending training camp with the club in 2013. The Ball State grad had spent time on the roster of a number of NFL teams including Seattle, Buffalo, New York and Miami before signing with the Leos last year. A knee injury in camp last year ended his hopes of making the final roster, but didn’t prevent the talented tackle from impressing coaches enough to mark his return in 2014.

Heyer comes north to British Columbia with a strong NFL resume including action in 61 regular season games over five seasons with 35 starts. The former Maryland Terrapin was an undrafted free agent signing of the Washington Redskins in 2007 and went on to appear in 49 games over four seasons, 28 as the starting right guard. Heyer also dressed for 12 regular season games for the Oakland Raiders in 2011.

Chisolm was an undrafted free agent signing of the Miami Dolphins in 2011 after two strong seasons at the University of South Carolina. The former college walk-on also spent time with both the San Francisco 49’ers and Carolina Panthers in 2012 and 2013.

Slowey comes to the Lions after a couple of NFL stops in San Francisco and Oakland. The Medford, Oregon product was a three-year starter at Western Oregon and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2011 before being selected by the 49’ers in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

All four training camp hopefuls will be on the field next week as part of the Lions’ offseason workouts slated for Monday, April 28 through Wednesday, April 30 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at the club’s Surrey practice facility.

All with the requisite NFL experience. They have skills learned in college. And they have shown enough skill to hang with their NFL teams, such as they were. Filling import O Line spots should not be a problem for a CFL team.

On the other hand, drafting and developing NI O Linemen has been very, very difficult for the Lions, until recently. Youngsters Norman, Fabien and Steward give us hope.

[South Pender]

That's good news. We need one import O-lineman to replace Ben Archibald, and my guess is that he'll be a right tackle, although I guess that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. Here's Wikipedia profiles of each of the four:

1. Andre Ramsey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Ramsey
2. Stephon Heyer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephon_Heyer
3. Garrett Chisolm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Chisolm
4. Jason Slowey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Slowey

The only one of the four with any real NFL playing experience is Heyer, who is the oldest of the four at 30. For the others, it's been a series of off-season or practice-squad associations with NFL teams (although Ramsey may have seen brief playing time with the Bill; it's hard to tell), but no playing time. Unfortunately, Heyer's Wiki profile doesn't describe his playing years with Washington and Oakland.

I think this is a good start to our search for a beast of a RT. More free agent camps will produce some more, I'm sure.

[MexicoLionFan]

Thanks Joe...as SP said "its a start"...through the draft and these FA camps we have a number of key players that we MUST GET if we are going to protect Lulay and make a run for the GC.

[MexicoLionFan]

BTW, after all these years living in Mexico, I got stung by a Scorpion for the first time last night. Hurt like a..............................!!!!!!!!

[Sir Purrcival]

Oooh, Oooh, I love these fill in the blanks games.

Hurt like a:
Hard hitting shut down safety
A Cam Wake like rush end
A 350 lb Olineman standing on my head

Oops, sorry, got my list of Lions needs mixed up.

[South Pender]

BTW, after all these years living in Mexico, I got stung by a Scorpion for the first time last night. Hurt like a..............................!!!!!!!!

Migawd...I thought scorpion bites were fatal! Luckily not. Did you need medical attention right away? Maybe a shot of something (antibiotic, rum, ...)?

[MexicoLionFan]

I am not sure where the story about fatalities come from...its like a bad wasp sting really...it just hurts even more...you get numbness in the area along with your tongue and throat...a weird sensation for sure. There are some people who are allergic to their venom and need emergency shots, I just needed RUM!!!

Sir Purcival, it felt like all 3 combined...

[Rammer]

I am not sure where the story about fatalities come from...its like a bad wasp sting really...it just hurts even more...you get numbness in the area along with your tongue and throat...a weird sensation for sure. There are some people who are allergic to their venom and need emergency shots, I just needed RUM!!!

Sir Purcival, it felt like all 3 combined...

Good to know, however I watched Stan Lee's Superhuman's show where a guy had numerous Scorpions placed in his mouth. That didn't look comfortable and the amount of times he was getting stung looked rather painful, yet he did survive. IIRC they said something like 10 stings should kill just about anyone, yet he sustained many more than that. Sorry to hear about your bite, it is nice to know that a single sting isn't life threatening necessarily, as I was also in the belief that a single sting could be the end of line for you.