I thought the same too Blitz Hughes versus Willis. Then I watched the TSN clip on Hughes and a discussion that Hufnagel (like Wally) has a pretty good sense of when players have passed their best before date. I was surprised that Hughes was older than Willis, by a full year. I thought Hughes was a couple years younger. Regardless both are clearly well into the back 9 of their career, more like the final 1 or 2 holes. Time will tell which one has the most fumes left in the tank.Blitz wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2018 7:06 amI would have loved to see Hughes in a Leos uniform rather than Odell. Hughes has led the CFL in sacks the last two seasons.B.C.FAN wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2018 4:00 pmAgreed. The Riders now have two of the league’s best pass rushers in Jefferson and Hughes.CardiacKid wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:41 pmPersonally I think the Riders made the better deal today.
It took some complicated deals with East Division teams the Lions and Riders have both bolstered their D-lines at the expense of the Stamps and Eskimos, and that’s likely to help the competitive balance in the West.
Jones has pulled off a great trade and given the Riders a much better chance to be playing in the Big Dance this year.
In looking at Hughes' numbers last year he picked up 6 of his 11 regular season sacks in the first 5 games he played including a hat-trick (1/4 of his season total) against the Riders in Week 5). Over the other 9 games he recorded 5. Still a very good pace but not nearly as productive as coming out of the chute. He also seemed to feast on the Riders in particular and Edmonton to a lesser extent. Including playoffs he chalked up 23 tackles and 9 sacks in 6 games vs Saskatchewan (11 DT, 6 SK in 3 GP) and Edmonton (12 DT, 3 SK in 3 GP). Against the rest of the league it was 22 DT, 3 SK in 10 GP. In 2 GP versus the Lions he had but a single DT to show.
Willis' numbers weren't as impressive as Hughes'. Like Hughes Willis also played 14 regular season games and 2 playoff games. 6 of his 8 regular season sacks came in the first 7 games with 2 in the final 7 plus 1 more in the playoffs.
Interesting irony though? Hughes best 2017 games were versus the Riders. Now he's a Rider. Willis recorded 6 (nearly 25%) of his 22 regular season DTs and 4 (half) of his 8 regular season SKs in only 2 GP against, you guessed it, BC. Now he's a Lion.