Alouettes attracting free agents this off-season
Montreal should be better in 2018 thanks to Reed’s recruiting of top talents
Somehow, Kavis Reed managed to convince some impressive free agents to join the last-place Montreal Alouettes.
Top defensive backs Tommie Campbell, Joe Burnett, Dominique Ellis and Mitchell White signed on this week, but Reed’s prize catch was Canadian pass rushing ace Jamaal Westerman, who joins his brother Jabar on the defensive line.
With other moves to strengthen the team’s Canadian content and boost the special teams, Reed feels he has addressed most the pressing needs of a woeful squad that went 3-15 and gave up a league-worst 580 points last season. But he still doesn’t know who the starting quarterback will be.
“The good thing about football off-season is you get an opportunity to reset and, in a nine-team league, if you’re smart and you’re strategic about it, things can happen,” Reed, the Alouettes’ general manager, said Friday. “We’re looking forward to continuing to build this thing.
“We’re not going to put projections on how many wins we’re going to have or be in the playoffs . . . we want to focus on making sure we have a very solid foundation and be a very competitive team, and hopefully fortune goes our way.”
It is already a much-changed roster from last season, which was Reed’s first after succeeding Jim Popp as GM. Reed also took over as interim coach when Jacques Chapdelaine and defensive co-ordinator Noel Thorpe were fired in September.
The new coach is former Green Bay Packers boss Mike Sherman. Former Calgary defensive backs coach Khalil Carter, who may have had a hand in convincing former Stampeders Campbell and Burnett to sign, is the new defensive co-ordinator, aided by veteran defence guru Rich Stubler as his “special adviser.”
Management plus the coaching and scouting staff spent two weeks together plotting their strategy ahead of the opening of CFL free agency on Tuesday. Reed said they landed many of their targets and are still shopping for more.
It was surprising to see coveted free agents like Westerman sign with a team that looked to be in disarray at the end of last season. But Reed denied reports that he had to pay well over market value for some free agents.
“We did not overpay for any of our players,” he said.
Reed said he has also brought the average age of the club down by a full year to 27.5 despite signing veterans. Burnett is 31, Campbell is 30. Before free agency, he dealt fullback J. C. Beaulieu to Ottawa for 30-year-old Patrick Lavoie. Defensive lineman Gabriel Knapton went to B.C. for 30-year-old receiver Chris Williams. And he brought back sacks leader John Bowman, 35.
It didn’t go so well for popular linebacker Kyries Hebert, 37, the 2017 eastern nominee for the outstanding defensive player award. He was scheduled to take part in a team school visit to encourage kids to finish their education on Thursday but never showed.
A day later, Reed explained why: Hebert asked to be released because he was slated for an unspecified different role under Carter and Stubler. He was immediately snapped up by the Ottawa Redblacks on Friday.