Re: Pre-Season Game Thread: Toronto Argonauts @ Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Posted: Sun May 25, 2025 7:53 am
My observations from midfield:
Hunter and Moore are definitely starting at the two tackle spots. Moore looked very good. Hunter is not an ideal height for tackle, but I don't think there is anyone else on the roster they'd be comfortable with at tackle. Doxtater looked OK at guard but got turnstiled a few times at left tackle. Delance did not get on the field and will be cut, along with Redd (who at 386 pounds needs to focus on his health, not football). Dankwah is way too green and will be on the PR this year.
The battle for the inside spots is very intriguing. Vandal is definitely a starter, the question is where. He played centre for the first half but I didn't assess the quality of his snaps. Ciraco played centre in the third quarter, and guard in the fourth. Nicastro did not get on the field until the fourth, at centre. Could one of them be traded, or even cut? I hope not, but there is a lot of depth inside with those three plus Doxtater, Giffen and Bosse. Hard to keep them all -- hopefully someone suffers a "toe injury" that requires time on the six-game.
Blackburn looks very likely to start at safety. He was a mini-Metchie out there, directing traffic in the secondary. Assibo-Dadzie also played a bit at safety but did not look CFL-ready to me. Rutledge, while listed at safety on the depth chart, seemed to be lined up at SAM when he was in the game.
Slywka will almost certainly be kept around because of his positional versatility. I don't know how that will work practically -- which group does he attend mtgs with? But it's useful to have a guy who can be plugged into multiple positions.
Williams looks like a keeper for sure. Runs very hard, and very tough to bring down.
Horn is going to at minimum survive for another week, but based on his first game he's probably here for the season. I could see him supplanting Dukes eventually as the third-stringer.
There's some nice talent to work with among the receivers. Be interesting to see who sticks around on the PR, and whether any of the rookies gets on the game roster. If Blackburn does in fact start, Argos will have at least eight NAT starters and potentially nine, so there's room to play around with how the DIs are allocated.
Mital, unfortunately, seemed to suffer a hamstring tweak early. He took a bit of treatment, went to talk to Dinwiddie and then took off his gloves. Hopefully nothing serious.
Ojo was not dressed, as far as I could tell. I also did not notice Carter, and suspect he sat out.
Kwamou was a beast at LB, and I really liked what I saw from Stephen Smith, the LB out of CJFL Regina. He just looks like a football player. Cassar also looked very solid. Varga played specials and only a bit on defence in the fourth quarter.
D-line is going to take some time to come together. No one stood out although the starting unit (Parrish-Christmas-Williams-Chatfield) wasn't bad in Q1. Secondary will be OK despite a few busts.
Argos have a ton of guys around, will have to cut at least 10-15 this week I, think.
Hunter and Moore are definitely starting at the two tackle spots. Moore looked very good. Hunter is not an ideal height for tackle, but I don't think there is anyone else on the roster they'd be comfortable with at tackle. Doxtater looked OK at guard but got turnstiled a few times at left tackle. Delance did not get on the field and will be cut, along with Redd (who at 386 pounds needs to focus on his health, not football). Dankwah is way too green and will be on the PR this year.
The battle for the inside spots is very intriguing. Vandal is definitely a starter, the question is where. He played centre for the first half but I didn't assess the quality of his snaps. Ciraco played centre in the third quarter, and guard in the fourth. Nicastro did not get on the field until the fourth, at centre. Could one of them be traded, or even cut? I hope not, but there is a lot of depth inside with those three plus Doxtater, Giffen and Bosse. Hard to keep them all -- hopefully someone suffers a "toe injury" that requires time on the six-game.
Blackburn looks very likely to start at safety. He was a mini-Metchie out there, directing traffic in the secondary. Assibo-Dadzie also played a bit at safety but did not look CFL-ready to me. Rutledge, while listed at safety on the depth chart, seemed to be lined up at SAM when he was in the game.
Slywka will almost certainly be kept around because of his positional versatility. I don't know how that will work practically -- which group does he attend mtgs with? But it's useful to have a guy who can be plugged into multiple positions.
Williams looks like a keeper for sure. Runs very hard, and very tough to bring down.
Horn is going to at minimum survive for another week, but based on his first game he's probably here for the season. I could see him supplanting Dukes eventually as the third-stringer.
There's some nice talent to work with among the receivers. Be interesting to see who sticks around on the PR, and whether any of the rookies gets on the game roster. If Blackburn does in fact start, Argos will have at least eight NAT starters and potentially nine, so there's room to play around with how the DIs are allocated.
Mital, unfortunately, seemed to suffer a hamstring tweak early. He took a bit of treatment, went to talk to Dinwiddie and then took off his gloves. Hopefully nothing serious.
Ojo was not dressed, as far as I could tell. I also did not notice Carter, and suspect he sat out.
Kwamou was a beast at LB, and I really liked what I saw from Stephen Smith, the LB out of CJFL Regina. He just looks like a football player. Cassar also looked very solid. Varga played specials and only a bit on defence in the fourth quarter.
D-line is going to take some time to come together. No one stood out although the starting unit (Parrish-Christmas-Williams-Chatfield) wasn't bad in Q1. Secondary will be OK despite a few busts.
Argos have a ton of guys around, will have to cut at least 10-15 this week I, think.