Year of the Rocket: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History (https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/pro...of-the-rocket/)
Bouncing Back: From National Joke to Grey Cup Champs (https://bit.ly/3fvip5x)
YOTR YouTube https://bit.ly/37jtG4f
BB YouTube https://bit.ly/2TSYPs7
Anyone going to practice today? It's been moved to the Downsview Park Soccer Bubble.
https://www.argonauts.ca/2017-traini...edia-schedule/
It's us vs the rest of the country
FAN FEST
Toronto Sun
Richard Mantauh
There’s probably no correlation between the number of people who show up for Fan Day at training camp and the number who will show up at BMO Field during the season. But still the Argos were pleased with having more than 500 fans on hand on Saturday at its practice at York University.
After the 1½-hour session, the players were eager to greet their supporters, many of whom donned their Argos gear for the day.
“It was fun,” Trestman said. “It was good for the players. It lit a little bit of a fire under them. They were ready to go.”
“It’s good to have the fans out,” Willy said. “This league is so much built on its fans so it was good to see them out there supporting us.”
Also on hand and as popular as ever was Argos legend Pinball Clemons.
ESKIES FAN FEST TWEET Morley Scott
#Esks estimate 3500 to 4 k for Fan Day. Lots of beer and merchandise sold. Easily most successful and well attended Fan Day. #CFL
I'm a bit amazed that we still have six QBs in camp. For preseason game 2 we'll need to give Ray a couple of series to warm him up, and we'll need to resolve the battle for #2 (a quarter each for Willy and Fajardo?). That doesn't leave much time for Prukop and Bethyl-Thompson to audition...
I am assuming that Mathews is the odd man out, obviously. Who knows, though; maybe the tape will show that his receivers let him down last night and Willy's salary will be an issue.
According to Mike Hogan's twitter feed - Wilder looks to have won the backup RB spot, as Malena has been released.
Tough break for Malena, especially considering it was a good gain on his only carry. He was one of several short statured low centre of gravity guys who are quick in this years camp as I noticed on Fan Day. He was also being looked as a punt and kickoff returner, along with newbie Martese Jackson, who had some playing time Thursday and Canadian U of Guelph star Ryan Niewesteeg who was not either not dressed Thursday or did not see action.
I think you're going to have to add receiver Jimmy Ralph on your unstoppable force line Ravi. He looked good in securing the football at fan day and followed it up with good production in pre-season so far. They may opt to have him go back to the University of Alberta to finish his 1 yr of CIS eligibility, but if he continues to produce, he will be hard to ignore, especially as a Canadian.
As far as international receivers go, Cole Watson had a noticeable contribution on Thursday. I haven't noticed Devon Wylie at Fan Day or on Thursday, but he did contribute when he got playing time last year. Jeff Fuller is probably a lock, and so is SJ Green, but Armanti Edwards is not a lock for starting based on what I saw. I'm delighted Popp has brought in good talent in camp. The competition level for jobs is hands down better than it was last year, despite the late confirmation of Popp and Trestman being hired.
I think it's safe to say, we can look forward to a much more balanced team with more depth on all sides of the ball this season and not the steady dose of 17 pt losses we saw last season at BMO. Hopefully this team can get better week to week and build some casual fan interest by playing interesting football on offense and tough defence. Can't wait to see Bear Woods patrolling at linebacker.
In addition to letting Malena go, we also cut WR Justin Brown today. I don't think he played on Thursday... was he hurt too?
Two new INT WRs were signed:
The #Argos made a series of transactions this morning:
— Toronto Argonauts PR (@Argonauts_PR) June 10, 2017
ADDED:
WR Ed Eagan, Northwestern St
WR Jamel Johnson, Alabama St
Eagen is a WR/KR type and Johnson looks like a slotback.
The release of Stephen Hill and now Brown is interesting - 2 guys with very impressive NFL resumes, and yep, a lot of those type end up not panning out in the CFL. 2 new receivers added mid-camp?- whatever I guess, but there is lots of receiver talent still in TC - Green & Fuller, Posey, Wylie, Edwards from the Riders, Morgan & Worthy? - how many receivers do you need to audition late in camp? - this Watson guy comes out of nowhere and gets lot of ex, game playing time? And with Jimmy Ralph making an impression, to go with Jones & Noel as NI receiver talent. the Argos might think of going with at least 2 NI receiver starters; but not if the position is pencilled-in for mostly imports.
Davonte Wallace was cut to make room for Pfeffer, so the LT competition seems to be down to Mack and the Campbells.
Rush's new article indicates that SJ Green is coming along nicely, but I'll be surprised if he plays in the preseason. It does sound like there's a chance he'll be ready to go for game #1, though.
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