Calgary Stampeder Thread

[jerrym]

Bo Levi Mitchell has avoided off-season surgery on his throwing shoulder despite being bothered by it for the rest of the season after injuring it in Week 5 because the shoulder is structurally sound. Good news for the Stampeders.

[jerrym]

After being charged with resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and marijuana possession in Oklahoma, WR/ST Roy Finch has been released on $6,000 bail.

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After being charged with resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and marijuana possession in Oklahoma, WR/ST Roy Finch has been released on $6,000 bail.

Looks like they worked Roy over pretty good. Hope he hasn't any eye damage. Bad decision to run and resist. He must of been thinking if he escaped, Calgary wouldn't find about it. But I wonder if he was into something beside the weed to react that way. Will be interesting to see how Huf or the League handles this.

[jerrym]

GM John Hufnagel discusses his team's four tryout camps which wrapped up in early April, the CFL Combine, and the upcoming CFL Draft and last tryout camp:

“We’re working hard all along with our free-agent camps,” Hufnagel said. “That all leads to getting 60 guys to go to our rookie camp at the end of the month.
“We invite 60 players there and these players consist of guys that have been on the radar on our negotiation lists that were possibly cut last year in the NFL camp and didn’t get signed onto a practice roster so they’re on the streets. Now we’ve already seen them because we have scouts going to all the NFL camps and watching their college film and things like that. We get 60 of those rookie players to come down and out of that we invite about 25 to training camp.” ...


A major event – the CFL Combine – occurred on March 24-25 in Winnipeg, where Stamps coaches, management, and other front-office staff gathered to evaluate the next generation of national talent. Hufnagel and his team have been working hard since before the new year started, compiling the draft reports into their system. Now, with just under three weeks until the draft, he’ll meet with his head coach Dave Dickenson, the scouts, position coaches, and other coordinators to make final adjustments to each draftable player’s grade.
“We’re just fine-tuning our grades and then putting a stack to it,” said Hufnagel. “Stacking being you have guys with similar grades, what’s our priority, how do they rank and fall. So our draft board will be highest grade all the way down within the priorities we set for our needs. That’s hard work but a lot of work had been done previously to make sure the decisions are hopefully the right decisions.” ...

“With the 25 we select at the end of the month, and then going to the draft and our nine selections, that’s kind of how we stock our cupboards,” said Hufnagel.

https://www.stampeders.com/2018/04/1...l-update-pt-2/

[jerrym]

Stampeder OL Pierre Lavertu, the #1 overall draft choice in 2014, has decided to retire at 27, following doctor's advice that he would not fully recover to his former playing level after an injury cost him the 2017 season.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/football/nf...l-2017-injury/

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GM John Hufnagel says Patrick Levels, who played 12 games last year primarily as a backup DB, has the lead in taking over one of the two cornerback positions alongside Ciante Evans.

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OL Derek Dennis discusses why he returned to the Stampeders from the Riders in this interview.

Stamps TV: @AlannaNolan caught up with @6BONECRUSHER3 for the first time since he re-joined the team in free agency! pic.twitter.com/U7FQrO4686

— Calgary Stampeders (@calstampeders) April 27, 2018

[jerrym]

The Stampeders have gotten a lot younger during the offseason, especially in their receiving corps, which will give it a somewhat different look.

Along with the 25-year-old Daniels, Marken Michel (24), Reggie Begelton (24), Juwan Brescacin (25), Lemar Durant (25), Julan Lynch (23), Anthony Parker (28) and Kamar Jorden (28) are all available to catch passes for the Stampeders this season.
“I feel like it’s a lot of hunger,” said Jorden during the off-season’s biggest event in Winnipeg. “A lot of guys that want to prove themselves. There’s going to be a lot of guys on our team who really didn’t play that much last year. It’s going to be the opportunity to show the CFL who they are.”
This season will be an opportunity for Brescacin, Begelton and Lynch to showcase their talents.
Begelton stepped in when necessary last year, playing in nine games and catching 304 yards and a touchdown. Brescacin, in his second campaign in Calgary, hauled in 260 yards on 19 catches while Lynch, a Stampeders 2017 draft pick, played in seven games and made two catches for 19 yards.
Michel, however, won’t need to show the Canadian Football League who he is after he enjoyed a standout first year in Cowtown, playing in 13 games and catching 41 passes for 780 yards and three touchdowns. Instead, he’ll be looking to make an impact in the locker room.
“He wants to step up and be a leader,” Daniels said of Michel, who was the West’s nominee for Most Outstanding Rookie. “He let that be known from day one. He wasn’t shy about talking or anything. If he had questions, he always asked.
“You knew from day one he was going to make the team in camp. You knew he was going to be a big part of our offence.” ,,,

Michel, Daniels and Jorden will likely be taking the bulk of the receptions this season for Calgary after all three had stellar seasons in 2017. Jorden finished the year with 717 yards and six touchdowns on 52 catches in 10 games while Daniels hauled in 743 yards and four touchdowns on 47 catches in 13 contests.

https://www.cfl.ca/2018/04/30/youth-...age-advantage/

[jerrym]

One of the principal reasons for Calgary's success has been its ability to continually select quality OL in the draft even though the team has often lost them early in their careers to injury or the NFL. Pierre Lavertu is just the most recent example.

Lavertu’s departure from the Stamps marks the fourth time in three years that Calgary has lost a blue-chip offensive lineman due to unforeseen circumstances.

Brett Jones was drafted by the Stampeders in the second round of the 2013 CFL draft. Winning the league’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman award in just his second pro season, Jones was well on his way to CFL stardom at just 24 years of age. That changed when Jones signed a free agent contract with the NFL’s New York Giants in February of 2015. Jones entered the Giants’ starting line-up permanently two years later and, after signing a one-year contract tender worth $2.9-million USD earlier this month, Jones should be in the Giants’ starting line-up once again this season.
Brander Craighead was drafted one round ahead of Jones in 2013 (seventh overall), but didn’t join the Stamps until 2014 due to his status as a redshirt junior. Craighead shone in seven starts as a rookie with his powerful 6’7, 300-pound frame enveloping opposing defensive linemen. The big man’s career was short-lived, however, when a series of head and ankle ailments held him out of the line-up for eleven games in 2014 and the entire 2015 season. Craighead formally announced his retirement in January of 2016.

Karl Lavoie was Calgary’s first-round selection in 2015 and impressed early with his ability to play centre, guard, and tackle. Suffering a knee injury in the first game of his CFL career, Lavoie never again saw the field at the professional level. The Laval product retired in May of 2017 after missing 35 of a possible 36 games over the course of his two-year career. ...



The Stampeders have weathered the storm admirably given a challenging set of circumstances. Spencer Wilson, a two-time CFL all-star, joined the Stampeders in 2011 as an undrafted free agent. Shane Bergman, a starter in Cowtown for the past four seasons, was drafted in the sixth round back in 2013. Brad Erdos, a veteran of 43 CFL contests, was a fourth-round selection in 2012. And Roman Grozman, a fourth-round pick from 2016, will return to the line-up this year after missing all of last season due to injury.

Garnering this type of production from the draft’s later rounds is the only reason why the Stampeders’ offensive line hasn’t fallen into disrepair over the past three seasons. Jones, Craighead, Lavoie, and Lavertu would make a formidable offensive line almost entirely unto themselves. The fact that the Stampeders have built a formidable unit in the absence of all four players is remarkably impressive.

http://3downnation.com/2018/05/01/la...ffensive-line/

[jerrym]

With Roy Finch facing charges in Oklahoma of resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, and possessing marijuana, the Stampeders have put him on their retired list as they believe he will be "out of football indefinitely."

[jerrym]

Rory Kohlert has decided to retire. After five years with the Bombers, he played in 2017 for Calgary but caught only 7 passes for 77 yards in 15 games. Although he signed as a free agent with the Eskimos in February, he decided he had enough. Kohlert ended his career with 1,990 yards in receptions.

[jerrym]

With the retirements of Dan Federkeil and Pierre Lavertu, it's not surprising that the Stampeders went after OL Ryan Sceviour with their first pick.

At 6-foot-4 and weighing in at 305 lb., he’s a big guard who was named a second-team all-Canadian in both 2016 and ’17 on a Dinos team that put up big numbers.
He’s strong, too, as his 22 reps on the bench-press at the CFL National Combine in March was tied for third among all players.
“We’re very pleased with the selection,” said Stamps president/GM John Hufnagel. “Ryan’s a good football player, an excellent guard who plays with great technique. He’s a smart player, very strong lower-body, and he’ll be a great addition to our squad and come in and compete and provide great depth for us.”


Sceviour said the Stamps had been in contact with his agent for a couple weeks so he knew that staying in Calgary was a strong possibility, although with five offensive linemen getting selected in the draft’s first six picks, there was a chance he’d be off the board before the Stamps got the chance to take him.
“I’ll say there were a little nerves,” Hufnagel said. “Fortunately, he was still there, and so I’m pleased with the way it worked out.”

http://calgarysun.com/sports/footbal...und-draft-pick

[jerrym]

The following article reviews all of Calgary's draft picks.

https://www.stampeders.com/2018/05/0...ers-cfl-draft/

[rdavies]

Stamps’ Andrew Buckley announces retirement
cfl.ca Staff May 7, 2018

CALGARY — Canadian quarterback Andrew Buckley announced Monday he’s retiring from the Canadian Football League to pursue other career opportunities.

Buckley, just 24 years old, retires after two seasons with the Stampeders. The former seventh-round draft pick was expected to serve as the primary backup quarterback to Bo Levi Mitchell.

“I need to thank the Calgary Stampeders organization for an amazing two years,” said Buckley. “It has been the thrill of a lifetime wearing the red and white and I consider myself immensely lucky to have been a Stampeder.

“I’ve been accepted into medical school at the University of Calgary and it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass on. Studying medicine has been my goal since I was young and this is the right time in my life to pursue it.”

A Calgary native, Buckley spent two seasons with the Stampeders, serving primarily as the team’s short-yardage quarterback as well as the holder on field goals and extra points. He had 57 career carries for 157 yards and 11 touchdowns including eight touchdowns in 2016, a total that matched the CFL single-season record for rushing majors by a Canadian quarterback.

Buckley also completed 33 of 44 passes as a Stamp for 326 yards and one touchdown.

A two-time winner of the Hec Crighton Trophy as the top player in Canadian university football, Buckley was a seventh-round selection of the Stamps out of the University of Calgary in 2015.

“We’re sorry to lose Andrew but we certainly wish him the best in his studies and his future career,” said Stampeders president and general manager John Hufnagel. “We enjoyed Andrew’s time with the Red and White and thank him for everything he did for the organization.”

The Stamps are likely to bring in at least another quarterback for training camp, but in the meantime, Ricky Stanzi appears to be the favourite to back up Mitchell this season.

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Another Stampeder National OL, Roman Grozman, has retired. After he was drafted in 2016, he played in seven games, but he did not get on the field in 2017.

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Calgary has released National LB Dexter Janke, who was drafted in 2015 and played in 16 games since then, primarily as a ST player.

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Andrew Buckley comments in more detail on his retirement at age 24 from the CFL.

“The day I did get my first pro playbook,’’ Buckley is reminiscing, on his last official day as a Calgary Stampeder, “I was like ‘Wow! There’s a lot to process here. You’re just kind of overwhelmed by everything. You think you might never get up to speed.
“But school … that’s going to be a challenge. There’s a ton of material they throw at you but especially at the U of C, where a four-year-program in medicine is condensed into three. It’s going to be fast-paced. There’s going to be a lot of information. I’m sure there are going to be late nights I’m scouring over textbooks, dead tired in the library, asking myself: ‘Why did I make that decision again?’”
But in his heart, he already knows the answer.

It’s not that Buckley wants to be Russ Jackson or Bo Levi Mitchell any less than, say, Marcus Welby or – given his youthful Archie Andrews-ish appearance – Doogie Howser, but family ties do run deep.
Buckley’s dad Richard is an orthopaedic surgeon, his mom Lois a GP. So two years into his CFL adventure, after a painstaking week weighing pros and cons, considering the option of medicine at the U of C, the 24-year-old Calgary Stampeders quarterback has decided to retire from football.
Richard Buckley, faced with the same dilemma, made somewhat the same call, foregoing a chance to try out with the Montreal Alouettes for med school after playing at the U of C. ...

And when the son informed the dad of his decision? “It’s funny,’’ laughs Buckley, “but the minute I told (him), he said: ‘Good, because a spot on our touch football team just opened up.’”

“I was one of those weird kids that grow up wanting to be a doctor, not a pro football player. But the way things worked out, the door opened to play pro football, I ran through it and loved every minute.”

https://www.stampeders.com/2018/05/0...the-classroom/

[jerrym]

The Stamps, along with the Bombers, will be looking for more QBs because of the retirements of Andrew Buckley and Darian Durant. In Calgary's case, third string International QB Ricky Stanzi was a big failure last year. Despite being 30 and having five seasons of NFL experience, he went four for eight for 53 yards with two interceptions.
In terms of available QBs with some CFL experience, Drew Tate leads the list. HC Dickenson has contacted Tate, but while not totally shutting the door, he has indicated that he is more interested in coaching now. Former Argo Mitchell Gale has some experience, but Calgary cut him to keep Stanza. Although Gale did sign with BC, and dress for seven games, he saw no action. Ryan Lindley's play with Ottawa last year resulted in his being released in the offseason.
So the Stampeders and Bombers may be looking at other teams' QB cuts to find a decent backup.

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Calgary has added to International LBs for TC: Keith Reineke, who most recently played in the US Spring League after being a Division III second team All-American; and Tyler Stoddard, who played in the German League after being a safety at Southeastern Louisiana.

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Six DBs have been added to the Stampeder roster: Devin Butler, Tay Glover-Wright, Gump Hayes, Tre Roberson, Mark Roberts and Julian Wilson. Glover-Wright and Wilson played two and one games for the Stamps last year while Roberts was on the Riders' PR. Only Butler has no CFL or NFL experience.

https://www.stampeders.com/2018/05/0...-added-roster/