Upgrading Als’ offence is GM Reed’s top priority
It will seem somewhat surreal when the Montreal Alouettes converge on Bishop’s University at the end of May for the start of training camp and the 2017 Canadian Football League regular season.
Forget, for a moment, the inevitable changes that will be made to their roster; the team that ends a season never is the same as the one that embarks on a new campaign.
Instead, for the first time in more than two decades, Jim Popp — the only general manager this franchise has known since its return to the CFL in 1996 — will be gone, having been fired on Nov. 7, two days after the end of the schedule, with a year remaining on his contract.
Popp was the architect of three Grey Cup-championship teams; he was the brains behind the powerhouse squads that reached the title game eight times over an 11-year period, starting in 2000. But this once vaunted and admired organization has fallen on hard times, and Popp was deemed — justifiably or not — to be the scapegoat. And it just won’t seem to be the same without him.
In jettisoning the GM with the most experience, certainly with one team, the Als have done an about-face, replacing Popp with Kavis Reed. Reed, a former head coach with the Edmonton Eskimos, was the Als’ special teams coordinator and one of two assistant head coaches appointed by Popp. More importantly, he has never been a GM. But in announcing his hiring, co-owner Andrew Wetenhall said Reed repeatedly scored higher than anyone else who interviewed for the job, including Ottawa assistant GM Brock Sunderland and Danny Maciocia, the head coach at Université de Montréal, and a former GM and head coach of the Eskimos.
Reed is extremely intelligent, articulate and meticulous, but the rookie GM also will inevitably make mistakes along the way and will have to prove a quick study if he hopes to make the Als competitive again in a hurry.
While Montreal improved to 7-11 last season from 6-12 in 2015, many of the warts that have plagued this team since the retirement of quarterback Anthony Calvillo have yet to be eradicated.
The team showed a modicum of promise down the stretch after Jacques Chapdelaine replaced Popp as head coach, winning four of its final six games. But those victories came against Toronto and Saskatchewan, two dreadful teams, along with Calgary and Hamilton clubs that already had solidified playoff positions. And the Als, for the most part, continued to struggle offensively against most, if not all, of them.
Chapdelaine, who began the season as the receivers coach and an adviser to offensive coordinator Calvillo, usurped the play-calling duties from the overwhelmed Calvillo when he was named interim head coach. The Als did the logical thing at season’s end when they removed the interim title from Chapdelaine’s portfolio. He at least deserves the opportunity to try to fix this mess from the beginning and with a clean slate.
Chapdelaine becomes the Als’ fifth head coach since 2012, the final season of Marc Trestman. Only one of those coaches, Tom Higgins, has gone to training camp two successive years with Montreal. Somehow the organization must find continuity at the position.
Reed, and to a lesser extent Chapdelaine, have three major areas of concern as they embark on a new era for the franchise.
Reed has identified the quarterback position as his top priority. It’s not that the organization’s brain trust doesn’t believe Vernon Adams and Rakeem Cato are capable of performing — and if they don’t think so, they’re not saying. Instead, Reed and Chapdelaine have spoken about the importance of having a veteran presence at the position, if not to necessarily play, to at least groom the young pivots.
All eyes will be focused during the coming months on Saskatchewan’s Darian Durant, and whether he reaches free agency on Feb. 14. Durant has experience with Reed and Chapdelaine, most recently the latter, in 2015, when he was the Roughriders’ offensive coordinator.
The Als’ offensive line allowed a league-high 64 sacks and must be strengthened. One immediate solution would be to play a pair of imports on the outside, at tackle, but that would require changing the ratio — potentially replacing two Americans with Canadians. That might be easier said than done.
And while Reed still has 24 potential free agents to re-sign, should he choose, he’ll be alarmed the majority — 16 — are on defence, the team’s strength the last two seasons.
He has his work cut out, as does new president Patrick Boivin, who must make this team relevant again. Of course, winning usually cures all.