Quote Originally Posted by paulwoods13 View Post
I agree with all of that, but IMO an import kicker is a luxury that works only if he does all three jobs. By dressing Alix we can get both Hazelton and Spencer into the lineup. I'm good with that, but sure hope Alix punts close to as well as MPalardy did last week.
So we had an import kicker last week who didn't do all three jobs, and we had one of our best games of the year. However, by your reasoning, that can't work? It just did.

You have also suggested that having two kickers (Waters and Pfeffer) on the active roster is a defeatist strategy, and now we're forced to use two kickers on the game day roster.

Also, (and I'm not the first person to say this), there would be other ways to get both Spencer and Hazelton into the lineup. We don't need to dress two internationals at RB. If Whitaker is the starter, Anthony Coombs and Brendan Gillanders could both be given the odd carry. I don't think Coombs is durable enough to be the full-time starter at RB, but he wouldn't have to be. With respect to Gillanders, he could also help out at RB and give the team a good change-of-pace at that position, as he has a different style and is bigger than our other RBs.

I'm not assuming this, but Gillanders could potentially be a more effective ball carrier than any RB on the Argonaut roster. When I watch Gillanders play, he looks very strong and he has a motor. His style of play suggests he could very likely be an effective ball carrier, not just blocker and receiver out-of-the-backfield. I like that Milanovich has involved him in the passing game a tiny bit, but he needs to touch the ball more often.

Milanovich said of Gillanders that he "isn't really a FB, and he isn't really a RB", and suggested they were trying to find more ways to get him involved. Why not use him at RB? Milanovich always seems to favour small international RBs. There is no law that states "all RBs who line up in the CFL must be internationals and must be small and very elusive type RBs." Gillanders is 5'11, 211 lbs. That's a tiny bit smaller than Anthony Woodson, who is a RB. If the team couldn't or wouldn't sign Jerome Messam and/or Anthony Woodson, use Coombs and Gillanders, along with Whitaker.

I realize the budget has been an issue this year, but you really have to hand it to Milanovich. He made yet another backwards decision by letting Michael Palardy go. I don't know almost anything about the new punter the team has signed, but if consistency has been an issue with his punting, why take the huge risk of letting Michael Palardy go? He showed great distance, hang-time, accuracy and consistency. Having a great punter is much more important than dressing one more international receiver or a second international RB.

I like that we are dressing Spencer (who can also return kicks) and Hazelton, but I think that Curtis Steele is less important to the team than Michael Palardy. The running game has been a disaster this year, and I don't see how dressing someone in Steele who has always been just okay will really improve things much. Ball security has been a bit of an issue with Curtis Steele, and other than his big game that he started versus BC at home in 2013, Steele has been average. He isn't very durable, and is elusive but isn't the kind of RB who can consistently grind out the tough yards when needed. Neither is Whitaker.

No starting RB on this team got a TD until game 11. As far as productive games from RBs go, we've gotten one big game from Whitaker in week 1, one pretty big game from Kackert in his first game back and one decent game from Whitaker last week. That's it. Both Kackert and Whitaker are near the end of their careers, Josey didn't show anything in the regular season and Steele hasn't played all year and is just okay. We have depth, but none of our RBs have been consistently effective with a limited number of touches. Also, to be fair, none have been given a chance to prove they can be better with a heavier workload. In the 3 effective games by our RBs, each time the RB had at least or close to 15 touches I believe, if you combine their number of carries and receptions. However, that often-effective strategy has rarely been employed.

I realize Steele is a great player on special teams, but it is a pretty big risk to play one of your two starting RBs on special teams. Can't another player do that job? Last year he missed time late in the year due to a concussion he sustained playing special teams in Montreal if I recall correctly. That was on the first play of that game. I guess the team feels it's worth the risk, as they are in a tight race.

Milanovich did mention the issue of roster flexibility when dressing an international kicker to do just punting. I just feel he could be a little bit more creative with how he uses his roster.