2014 free agents

[ducepot]

The players don't want to be riding BICYCLES to get BC Place for games...

[cromartie]

I beg to differ.....Buono put us in that position last year....and after the injury to Fabien, our offense was toast.

Valli and Kabongo should not be on the team....period....if they were released today, no other team would pick them up. Angus Reid is going to retire.

Valli is a walking penalty flag who is two years past his expiry date. I'm with you on Reid.

But Kabongo is a fine swing guy. It wasn't the Fabien injury that did our offense in, though it didn't help. It was a newly departed coach's refusal to retool the running game and the injury to Travis that did our offense in.

The lack of NI depth on the O Line is pretty dire. But that's not where the sky is falling. The sky is falling on the interior of the other side of the line, where you have one guy and need three.

[South Pender]

Well.....I'll be interested to see where Buono goes from here. If you take a look at the roster, the Lions have 2 quality NI olineman under contract.....and one, Fabien, is coming back from a serious knee injury.......they lost Matt Albright to Ottawa and Myddleton to hamilton.........so where does Buono find the NI olineman that he needs?

You won't find them at tryout camps and teams are unwilling to trade any of theirs......so how do you form a quality oline when you don't have the players?

Well, one will probably be an import (to replace Ben Archibald), which leaves a need for one NI guard. Not necessarily mission impossible.

I beg to differ.....Buono put us in that position last year....and after the injury to Fabien, our offense was toast.

Valli and Kabongo should not be on the team....period....if they were released today, no other team would pick them up. Angus Reid is going to retire.

So for the 3 NI starters plus 2 quality backups positions......we have a total of 2 quality NI lineman.......which leaves us 3 short as of today. Buono is once again down on his knees praying for best case scenario (like last year).....praying that Hunter Stewart doesn't get any NFL interest, is willing to report to the Lions and can be a starter 1st year........praying that Danny Watkins gets cut from the NFL and is willing to play for the Lions......praying that they can draft at least 2 quality NI olineman that do not have NFL aspirations, but are still good enough to step up and start in year 1, should injury occur to a starter.

That's a helluva lot of praying !!

Import players can be replaced quite easily if your scouting department does even a half assed job..........but NI's capable of starting are very difficult to find.....damn near impossible during the season and quite difficult any other time.

So what does Buono do if his prayers aren't answered (as in 2013)?.....simple, we have a repeat of 2013.

I guess I'm counting players differently. I see us as having 3 quality O-linemen: Olafioye, Fabien, and Norman. I believe we will replace import Archibald with another import, and I don't see that as all that difficult (and not necessarily something that would be done via free-agency). This means we need to pick up a NI guard to be running with the same ratio on the O-line as last year. If we can't find that NI, then the team has the option of bringing another import for the O-line--giving us 3, instead of the 2 we had last year. Again an import guard shouldn't be that hard to find, and again I wouldn't necessarily have looked for one in free-agency. This latter scenario, although less appealing than having only 2 imports on our O-line, is still do-able, with Moore gone now, and using one more NI receiver in our rotation.

As an afterthought, does anyone know whether Angus Reid might be healed up and wanting to play another season? If he were, we'd have our O-line needs, vis-a-vis NIs reasonably well-covered, with Norman moved back to guard. If that played out, all Wally would have to do would be to find a young import O-tackle to replace Archibald (or, as a last resort, go with Archibald again).

[TheLionKing]

Wonder if the cost of living on the West Coast is a factor ?

Perhaps, though I too am fearing that we might be seeing the negative results of the Geroy Simon and Korey Banks situations. If that's how we treat our loyal star players, why would people want to come here?

Releasing star players nearing the end of their careers is not a new phenomenon with Wally. He's done it with Jason Clermont, Allan Pitts, Otis Floyd and others.

[sj-roc]

Wonder if the cost of living on the West Coast is a factor ?

Perhaps, though I too am fearing that we might be seeing the negative results of the Geroy Simon and Korey Banks situations. If that's how we treat our loyal star players, why would people want to come here?

Releasing star players nearing the end of their careers is not a new phenomenon with Wally. He's done it with Jason Clermont, Allan Pitts, Otis Floyd and others.

You could prob create a whole thread on the All-WallyCut Team.

[Spud387]

@FarhanLaljiTSN
LB Jamall Johnson has agreed to terms with #BCLions. Returns to where he began his career & lives in off season. #CFLFA14 #TiCats

[David]

Finally some good news! Sure, Jamall is 31, but he provides excellent linebacking depth for us. He led all Tiger-Cats last year in tackles (59) and added 3 sacks.


DH

[The_Pauser]

Finally some good news! Sure, Jamall is 31, but he provides excellent linebacking depth for us. He led all Tiger-Cats last year in tackles (59) and added 3 sacks.


DH

Yup. Good to have someone in here to replace KB. Not going to be a coverage guy, but apparently that's not what Wally wanted. Next on the agenda has to be a big DLineman. Good luck to Cornish trying to get through this.

[TheLionKing]

A bit of a surprise that Johnson is back in the Lions den given his 1st go around here. Lions now have arguably the hardest hitting corp in the league. Does this mean the end of Anton McKenzie ?

[KnowItAll]

after looking at the following

http://www.cfl.ca/page/transactions

I have to wonder.....are the lions still in the league???

Its beginning to seem to me line the lions are going to be possibly this seasons train wreck. Playoffs..doubtful

[TheLionKing]

Too early to be writing the Lions orbituary. It's the quality of the signings instead of quantity

[Blitz]

I agree with this move. Jamal Johnson will replace Anton McKenziie, likely play outside instead of using a nickel back in situations to stop the run.

The first time Jamal Johnson was here we didn't use him properly and it was a travesty. Every time he got a chance to get in the game he made something happen. He would run right by Javy Glatt to make a tackle. I, along with others, moaned on Lionbackers to no avail.

The positive is that we have him back. He is a year younger than McKenzie and has more range and in terms of depth he can play inside or outside whereas McKenzie struggled inside.

Butler would have been the better answer, because he was more versataille (safety or nickel) plus Butler was a non-import, which would have allowed us to play an import safety.

However, this is the next best answer. We now have excellent speed, excellent range, and three very hard hitting linebackers. However, we still need to find a nickelback.

Wally said Jamal will give the Lions some of the leadership and energy that we lost in Banks and that`s a positive as well.

Wally Buono, who met with Johnson on Thursday. “Jamall is a tremendous leader, very competitive, very vocal, a player who brings a lot of good energy into the locker room. I think he was one of the reasons Hamilton got as far as they did last year (the Ticats appeared in the 101st Grey Cup game). We lost some of that leadership when we traded Korey Banks to Winnipeg.”

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.cfl.ca/article/fa14-butler-r ... next-level

Craig Butler said there were several factors that drew him to Hamilton, including the success they had last year in making it to the championship game. He points to the coaches, locker room, overall organization and the team's new stadium that's scheduled to open in July.

Brandon Stewart (from the Blue Bombers) and Steve Myddelton (from the Lions) also say they feel they've joined a winning organization.

Steve Myddelton, 27, will add experience to an offensive line missing its centre and leader in Marwan Hage, selected by Ottawa in the expansion draft, and Peter Dyakowski, who will miss much of next season due to knee surgery.

"They have holes to fill, and that's my job now,'' said the six-foot-three, 305-pound native of Barrie, Ont.

He's entering his fifth CFL season (3 1/2 with Calgary before he was traded to B.C. midway through last year). He says being close to home and playing for a well-respected coaching staff drew him to the Ticats.

`"`The success the team had last year under the adverse circumstances they had (playing at the University of Guelph), I think this team is headed in the right direction and I'm excited to be a part of that,'' he said.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.cfl.ca/video/index/id/94633/autostart/true

Kent Austin comments on free agent signings.

On his best behaviour with the press. Lots of smiles. Jokes. But it seems that he has to coach himself. LOL It seems to me that the testiness is just beneath the surface.

Personally, as a fan of the CFL, I am very happy he is back in the league. IMO His return raises the bar for coaching and for management.
.........

Had some nice things to say about Jamall Johnson prior to JJ's signing with the Lions. As Austin says free agency is a two way street. They wanted JJ back, and had made him an offer.

[South Pender]

I continue to wonder about Keron Williams' status with the Lions. Despite having a poor year last season, I'm not sure we can replace everyone on the D-line. I'm wondering whether the situation with Keron and Wally is for Keron to remain in free agency for as long as it takes for him to get an offer from another team, and then have Wally match it to keep him a Lion. Is this perhaps the private agreement between the two? Let the market determine his value and then match it in the knowledge that Keron would rather play here for the same money offered somewhere else. There'd have to be a deadline at some point, I guess. I suppose it would play nicely into Wally's hands if Keron failed to receive an offer from another team, so that he (Wally) could sign Keron for less.