Changes for next season

[ArgoRavi]

I am hesitant to post this so soon after a Grey Cup victory but I thought that Bob Mitchell raises some issues in this article about the team going forward: http://www.thestar.com/sports/football/article/1294178--five-questions-for-the-grey-cup-champion-toronto-argonauts

I am not sure if Mitchell realizes though that players just can't come and go as they please. Marcus Ball, Pacino Horne and Patrick Watkins would all still have at least their option year remaining.

[OV Argo]

Yeah - maybe a bit too early to be questioning a GC championship team; but that's what off-seasons are for.

Needs - maybe: another top notch receiver (to go with Owens, Inman and Durie as the main 3); a real play-making
MLB; a young O-Lineman to challenge for a job.

If the Argos were to field basically the same line-up that just won the GC - i think they would be a pretty good team next season - continuity would certainly help; not sure as GC Champs they would be favored to be a dominant team next season - but maybe (i thought BC would be dominant this season - and they were not).

[flafson]

BC were number 1 in the regular season, only reason they didn't reach the Grey Cup is cause they lost 1 game to Calgary. Can't really ask to be more dominant than that.

[ArgoGabe22]

I don't think we're interested in signing Whittaker do you? I think Kackert will re-sign but didn't he say on the podcast on the new stadium that this is his last shot to make it in the NFL?

[KCargosfan]

BC were number 1 in the regular season, only reason they didn't reach the Grey Cup is cause they lost 1 game to Calgary. Can't really ask to be more dominant than that.

Agreed, from week 5 through week 17 BC was about as dominant as you can get.

[Will]

I see this team doing everything in their power to re-sign Chad Kackert. I see a subtle hint in the "KACK ATTACK" apparel.

[OV Argo]

Agreed, from week 5 through week 17 BC was about as dominant as you can get.


Well - I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on wether BC was a "dominant" team this past season; but i think we may have very different definitions of dominant football teams.

13 & 5 is a good CFL record these days, but still it's an 8 team league and they managed to lose 5 times, so it's not like one other really strong team was only able to give them problems. And their offence scored less points than the worst record in the league Ticats team did. 15 & 3 ,16 & 2 or 17 & 1 or 18 and 0 - then we're talking dominant football teams along with an indicator like leading the league in both points scored and fewest points allowed (like the 97 Argos; or the Esks 79 thru 81))

Some ferocious D Ticats teams of the 60s or the GC Dynasty Esks or the 96-97 Argos - now there were some domiant football teams; this year's BC Lions = not even close to that level, IMO.

[Will]

What about the future of guys like Jeff Johnson and Noel Prefontaine?
Can Jason Barnes or Maurice Mann become a consistent #4 receiver behind Owens, Durie and Inman or do we need to look elsewhere?
Where do we fit in Jalil Carter next year?
Did the O-Line do enough in the playoffs to stave off a major overhaul?

[294life]

repeating in regina in november. oof, good luck with that one. you'll need an even better team to pull it off.

[dmont]

.

The changes I'd most like to see concern our non-imports. I bet Reinders gets a serious look as a starting O-lineman. Belli will definitely be gone, and I thought Jeff Johnson's contribution really trailed off, particularly on offense. We'll see if he's back. Prefontaine still seemed to have the touch on punts, but he's kind of up in the air too. I felt great about the O-line's play down the stretch, but was that the exception or the rule? I'd like to see us get something out of the Canadian receivers. Durie was a regular contributor on offense, but that's pretty much the end of it. Spencer Watt got some decent playing time, but I didn't see him do much. Bradwell's been on the team for a while now and hasn't really broken out of specials. Haven't really seen anything out of Djems Kuome so far, and Quincy Hurst and Feoli-Gudino were sidelined early by injury, despite having good rookie camps. Zander Robinson contributed on special teams and the odd defensive play. David Lee came out of nowhere to see some work on defense. Why is Gagne-Marcoux still on the roster? Jason Pottinger's role has been significantly reduced. Besides that, lots of special teamers.

We were lucky to mostly avoid the injury bug this year, for the most part, so we didn't get a heckuva lot of chances to see if these guys could step up.

[paulwoods13]

Johnson will be back, IMO, for his play on special teams. I didn't see any deterioration in his play on offence -- he is used almost exclusively as a blocking back/tight end and as far as I could see he was just as effective with that as he was in 2011. His days of getting a lot of touches are long gone.

I'm betting Prefontaine becomes a kicking coach and serves as insurance if anything happens to Waters.

Reinders for sure will compete for a starting spot, probably at RG, with Eppele and Smith fighting it out to start at LG.

Neither Bradwell nor Watt nor anyone else is likely to get many touches at the wide-side wideout, so it doesn't matter much to me who wins that spot. I still like them both as change-of-pace receivers, and I want to see what Feoli-Gudino and Hurst can do. I think Kouame is on the bubble at best. Bradwell is a key contributor on special teams and even if that's all he ends up doing, he will be sticking around, just as Crawford did for several seasons of ST play.

Gagne-Marcoux will be released, IMO. Robinson and Lee will play lots on defence next season. If we lose Foley we will need to find another NI starter -- not sure either of those guys is up to it but I think one of them might be. Pottinger is still going to be around, IMO, at least for his ST contributions. If completely healthy -- and if ratio issues come into it -- he could still compete to start at MLB.

[OV Argo]

I wonder if both Wayne Smith & Parenteau will be back or make the team next season? - both experienced vets but Smith has had lots of injury problems over his career (and again this season); and Gagne-Marcoux sure went downhill in a hurry? - he's not that old. Keeping emerged as the starting C and maybe he's settled in to be quite good there? But it might be time for some of the young NI O-Linemen - like Eppele and Reinders, plus maybe Tyler Holmes might show up, plus maybe a draft pick (sounds like a decent crop there upcoming draft) to establish themselves as solid starters - on an O-line that could maybe be a strength, as opposed to a perceived Argo weakness, for some time now?

Only room for one starting NI on D ? - i have a feeling that will be the pre-determined thinking; Foley still (is he a FA upcoming?) - but if not him - then who? I believe Lee at DE or Matt Black in the D-backfield or Pottinger / Tristan Black (plus what if Greenwood and Tonye-Tonye show up?) are all capable; and maybe another draft pick could get a real look too (Laing shows / a few real big DTs available in this draft). Lots of possibilities.

[ArgoRavi]

Well - I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on wether BC was a "dominant" team this past season; but i think we may have very different definitions of dominant football teams.

13 & 5 is a good CFL record these days, but still it's an 8 team league and they managed to lose 5 times, so it's not like one other really strong team was only able to give them problems. And their offence scored less points than the worst record in the league Ticats team did. 15 & 3 ,16 & 2 or 17 & 1 or 18 and 0 - then we're talking dominant football teams along with an indicator like leading the league in both points scored and fewest points allowed (like the 97 Argos; or the Esks 79 thru 81))

Some ferocious D Ticats teams of the 60s or the GC Dynasty Esks or the 96-97 Argos - now there were some domiant football teams; this year's BC Lions = not even close to that level, IMO.

I tend to agree with you, OV. Many in the media were calling for B.C. to be at least 15-3 and roll to the Grey Cup but they weren't nearly as dominant as expected and I think that the Lions will be making quite a few changes in the off-season as a result. If it were up to some Lions fans, two former Argos in Byron Parker and Lin-J Shell will be available again so it will be interesting to see where they land if B.C. does indeed cut them loose. It looks like Arland Bruce's days may be numbered there as well.

[argolio]

I tend to agree with you, OV. Many in the media were calling for B.C. to be at least 15-3 and roll to the Grey Cup but they weren't nearly as dominant as expected and I think that the Lions will be making quite a few changes in the off-season as a result.With the cap system now fully entrenched in the league for years, I wonder if we'll ever see a 15+ win team ever again. The Als won 15 in 2009, but no one has done better than 13 since. Maybe that's as dominant as a team can get under a system where large disparities in salaries are not allowed.

And any B.C. fan crying about a 13-win season should really shut up.

[Midnight Blue]

repeating in regina in november. oof, good luck with that one. you'll need an even better team to pull it off.

Surely you're not suggesting that the 100th Grey Cup Champions, the Toronto Argonauts, are Fair Weather Finnegans?

[insert emoticon smile here]

Oh, I think the Boys will just be itchin' to prove they're not one-hit wonders, and can play real Football in the real elements, just like any Westerner (including earthquake-prone BC). I remember in '96, when Doug Flutie and the Boys won in the -10C snow in Hamilton, then repeatededit in '97, in Edmonton no less. Crowd noise -- bring it on ... blizzards, frozen tundra, heavy sleet, meteor showers, aurora borealis, erect nipples, howling winds, caribou on the field, roving packs of grey wolves, Klingons, polar bears, rabid groundhogs ... whatever. Bring it on!

Football should be played outdoors, and this team will have had a year of everyone gunning for them, a year to get even better, and a year to prove that this was no fluke.

Can't wait see Chad Kackert and Gerald Riggs Jr., both in the backfield, with huge ice-chips on their shoulders (the Zero Degree Kelvin crew), tearing through the opposing line.
Scott Milanovich will have to don a hard-hat towards the end of the game though, to survive the 60-pound frozen-solid block of Gatorade, which will be dumped on his head out of the cooler, as victory is sealed!


Ka 'Pla !