Training camp 2022

[OV:54-40]

CFL, and media depth charts are often way out to lunch.

No way Betts is playing regular reps at DT; I'll bet it's him and Menard splitting reps at one DE spot, and maybe one guy establishes himself as more full-time. Cherry I could see getting some reps at DT in the rotation.

Sayles at safety would be a mistake IMO - unless he learned lots in his experience there last season and figured some things out.

With 3 NI starters on D, then only need 4 on O - so either 3 interior O-Line + one receiver or 2 O-line + 2 receivers. ?

Canadian O-Line depth is very lacking (a starter in Steward gone) compared to several CFL teams; Ottawa for example, signed 3 vet FAs with CFL starter experience; have 3 or 4 from previous drafts with a bit of CFL playing experience, and have 4 draft picks (2 from 21 and 2 from 22) going into TC - and that is likely for the 3 interior spots cause i think they will hand the OT jobs to imports - so 10 or more guys competing for 3 starter and maybe 2 back-ups plus a PR or IR guy ? = some decent O-line prospects have to shake loose there ?

Unless Campbell learned or remembered something from the RedBlacks GC 2016 season, where it was not 7 only need apply, but 11 or 12 Canadians playing regular reps combined on O & D late in the season and in the play-offs.

[Hambone]

Ignore that depth chart. It's an anonymous guess by cfl.ca staff who seem to have little insight. No way the Lions start 10 nationals. Godber, Scarfone and Betts will be backups/rotational players at best. Purifoy, Breaux and Sayles won't necessarily line up as shown. Sayles was ineffective at safety last year.

Rider fans already lampooned the same anonymous depth chart for their squad for being way out to lunch. Whoever did theirs up had 5 at LT, 4 at RT and 4 combined over the other 3 spots. Then they had 6 at WIL, 5 at MAC and only 1 at SAM.

[B.C.FAN]

Thanks BCF. Where was that located. I looked at the CBA and Bylaws and couldn't find it but I didn't look real hard. I knew that text was out there and I'd read it many times before but couldn't remember where. Sometimers kicking in I guess.

That's from the 2019 CBA. It could be obsolete by Sunday but as far as I know it's still in force.
https://media.cfldb.ca/documents/cfl-cf ... t-2019.pdf

[B.C.FAN]

The Lions have released 5 players:


Harker was the only surprise. He had been taking first-team reps ahead of less-experienced QBs and had been efficient but extremely conservative in his decision-making. (The Lions did the same thing with Will Arndt last year. He took first-team reps in main camp but struggled with his accuracy and was cut.)

I don't know what kind of shape Qualls was in when he played in the NFL but he just didn't look to be in football shape in Kamloops, which is the most kind thing I can say. Perhaps we should have seen it coming when the Lions gave the number 96 to two defensive tackles, Qualls and former NFLer Tim Williams. That wouldn't have worked when vets reported to camp. It's more surprising that there weren't more DL cuts. The Lions still have 21 defensive linemen on their training camp roster.

[Hambone]

I'm wondering if Harker didn't see the writing on the wall that he was realistically competing for a PR spot and with that requested his release to put his Master's Degree in Mineral & Energy Economics to good use.

[B.C.FAN]

The Lions have moved free-agent defensive tackle Woody Baron to the suspended list, along with fellow defensive linemen Cam Kitchen and Tim Williams and other camp no-shows De'Anthony Thomas, Boqiao Li, Michael Warren and Taquan Mizzell. The active roster now stands at 91 players.

[B.C.FAN]

The training camp schedule has been updated. Practice today is at 4 p.m. as originally scheduled. Fanfest practice on Saturday is moved up to run from 2 p.m. to 5:45, followed by a player autograph session and Play with the Pros event for kids. A Sunday morning practice has also been added from 8:30 to 11:10.

https://www.bclions.com/training-camp/

[Hambone]

The boys are back to surprisingly cool Kamloops weather. Sunny with broken clouds but only about +13 with a cool wind.

Not surprisingly most of the units for the first team sessions lean heavy to returnees. No surprise IMO as I think you'd want to start as crisply as possible with the guys most familiar with the systems before mixing things up a bit.

OL l-r Figs, Knevel, Godber, Chungh, Perkins
WR 5 pack Lucky, Burnham, Cottoy, Rhymes and Hatcher with 7&16 on the short side.
Butler and Rourke in the backfield.

DL Gwachum, Bonner, Banks, Betts
LB Bo, Williams, Purifoy
SECONDARY: Peters, BCB, Sayles BHB, Lee S, Edwards-Cooper FHB, Breaux FCB

Zerr isn't here quite yet. Still enroute per Matt Baker.

[Hambone]

Rourke looking very crisp and in charge in team play 1st unit O vs 1st unit D.

[OV:54-40]

The boys are back to surprisingly cool Kamloops weather. Sunny with broken clouds but only about +13 with a cool wind.

Not surprisingly most of the units for the first team sessions lean heavy to returnees. No surprise IMO as I think you'd want to start as crisply as possible with the guys most familiar with the systems before mixing things up a bit.

OL l-r Figs, Knevel, Godber, Chungh, Perkins
WR 5 pack Lucky, Burnham, Cottoy, Rhymes and Hatcher with 7&16 on the short side.
Butler and Rourke in the backfield.

DL Gwachum, Bonner, Banks, Bettshttp://www.lionbackers.com/bc_lions/posting.ph ... 80fe9066f9#
LB Bo, Williams, Purifoy
SECONDARY: Peters, BCB, Sayles BHB, Lee S, Edwards-Cooper FHB, Breaux FCB

Zerr isn't here quite yet. Still enroute per Matt Baker.

Lee at safety? - interesting - he could maybe be a real impact guy there, but he was so good elsewhere in the D-backfield; if Delvin Breaux is anywhere near his previous best CFL days = what an addition to the secondary.

Wonder if there is still the possibility of rolling with 3 imports on the O-Line? A full season of Rhymes at his best in the receiving corps could be nice.

[B.C.FAN]

The boys are back to surprisingly cool Kamloops weather. Sunny with broken clouds but only about +13 with a cool wind.

Not surprisingly most of the units for the first team sessions lean heavy to returnees. No surprise IMO as I think you'd want to start as crisply as possible with the guys most familiar with the systems before mixing things up a bit.

OL l-r Figs, Knevel, Godber, Chungh, Perkins
WR 5 pack Lucky, Burnham, Cottoy, Rhymes and Hatcher with 7&16 on the short side.
Butler and Rourke in the backfield.

DL Gwachum, Bonner, Banks, Betts
LB Bo, Williams, Purifoy
SECONDARY: Peters, BCB, Sayles BHB, Lee S, Edwards-Cooper FHB, Breaux FCB

Zerr isn't here quite yet. Still enroute per Matt Baker.

Great report, Hambone. Safety was one of my question marks coming into camp. I suspect
we’ll see some juggling in the secondary yet. Lee’s experience and tackling ability could make him a good safety if his smaller body can take the punishment. See you in the morning.

[Hambone]

The boys are back to surprisingly cool Kamloops weather. Sunny with broken clouds but only about +13 with a cool wind.

Not surprisingly most of the units for the first team sessions lean heavy to returnees. No surprise IMO as I think you'd want to start as crisply as possible with the guys most familiar with the systems before mixing things up a bit.

OL l-r Figs, Knevel, Godber, Chungh, Perkins
WR 5 pack Lucky, Burnham, Cottoy, Rhymes and Hatcher with 7&16 on the short side.
Butler and Rourke in the backfield.

DL Gwachum, Bonner, Banks, Bettshttp://www.lionbackers.com/bc_lions/posting.ph ... 80fe9066f9#
LB Bo, Williams, Purifoy
SECONDARY: Peters, BCB, Sayles BHB, Lee S, Edwards-Cooper FHB, Breaux FCB

Zerr isn't here quite yet. Still enroute per Matt Baker.

Lee at safety? - interesting - he could maybe be a real impact guy there, but he was so good elsewhere in the D-backfield; if Delvin Breaux is anywhere near his previous best CFL days = what an addition to the secondary.

Wonder if there is still the possibility of rolling with 3 imports on the O-Line? A full season of Rhymes at his best in the receiving corps could be nice.

A savvy ballhawking vet like Lee could be an opposing QB's worst nightmare. A big hitter at S might scare receivers but a ball hawk scares the QB.

[Hambone]

The boys are back to surprisingly cool Kamloops weather. Sunny with broken clouds but only about +13 with a cool wind.

Not surprisingly most of the units for the first team sessions lean heavy to returnees. No surprise IMO as I think you'd want to start as crisply as possible with the guys most familiar with the systems before mixing things up a bit.

OL l-r Figs, Knevel, Godber, Chungh, Perkins
WR 5 pack Lucky, Burnham, Cottoy, Rhymes and Hatcher with 7&16 on the short side.
Butler and Rourke in the backfield.

DL Gwachum, Bonner, Banks, Betts
LB Bo, Williams, Purifoy
SECONDARY: Peters, BCB, Sayles BHB, Lee S, Edwards-Cooper FHB, Breaux FCB

Zerr isn't here quite yet. Still enroute per Matt Baker.

Great report, Hambone. Safety was one of my question marks coming into camp. I suspect
we’ll see some juggling in the secondary yet. Lee’s experience and tackling ability could make him a good safety if his smaller body can take the punishment. See you in the morning.

Barron Miles, Mark Washington and TJ Lee all share one thing in common. All were 5'9 but at 190 Lee is the heaviest of the 3.

[David]

Thanks for the great report, Hambone. Additionally today, per Matt Baker....




DH

[Qman]

The boys are back to surprisingly cool Kamloops weather. Sunny with broken clouds but only about +13 with a cool wind.

Not surprisingly most of the units for the first team sessions lean heavy to returnees. No surprise IMO as I think you'd want to start as crisply as possible with the guys most familiar with the systems before mixing things up a bit.

OL l-r Figs, Knevel, Godber, Chungh, Perkins
WR 5 pack Lucky, Burnham, Cottoy, Rhymes and Hatcher with 7&16 on the short side.
Butler and Rourke in the backfield.

DL Gwachum, Bonner, Banks, Bettshttp://www.lionbackers.com/bc_lions/posting.ph ... 80fe9066f9#
LB Bo, Williams, Purifoy
SECONDARY: Peters, BCB, Sayles BHB, Lee S, Edwards-Cooper FHB, Breaux FCB

Zerr isn't here quite yet. Still enroute per Matt Baker.

Lee at safety? - interesting - he could maybe be a real impact guy there, but he was so good elsewhere in the D-backfield; if Delvin Breaux is anywhere near his previous best CFL days = what an addition to the secondary.

Wonder if there is still the possibility of rolling with 3 imports on the O-Line? A full season of Rhymes at his best in the receiving corps could be nice.

8 Canadians, so probably Norman at centre, but he has to win the job