Ticat starter won’t against the Alouettes
The starter won’t start this week.
In fact, Jeremiah Masoli won’t play at all when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats visit the Montreal Alouettes Saturday afternoon, for their final pre-season game.
Backup Johnny Manziel will likely get the start — followed by Vernon Adams Jr. and Bryant Moniz, the pair who are battling Dane Evans for the final quarterback spot on the active roster behind Masoli and Manziel.
Evans likely won’t play, as he got roughly the same number of snaps as Masoli and Manziel in Friday’s loss to the Argonauts.
Jones, who already knows what his starter for the last 10 games of 2017 can do, said he also wanted to ensure that Masoli remains physically intact for the season opener June 16 in Calgary. It’s probable the pivot’s first-response protection — the offensive line — will not include many starters on Saturday.
“We’re going to play some of the backup players so we can get a look at them and try to have everybody healthy for Calgary,” Jones said.
Among the Ticats’ seven firsthalf turnovers against the Argos were two fumbles by running back Nikita Whitlock, who will also play on the defensive line. It was his first game since December 2015, when he was with the New York Giants and suffered a knee injury. Until the Giants made him a two-way player earlier that season, he’d been a defensive lineman all of his high school, college and pro career, and is still relatively new to the offensive side.
“I knew that he hadn’t carried the ball in a while, and I said it before the game, ‘You gotta take care of the ball,’” Jones says. “Normally guys who haven’t carried the ball fumble. He learned his lesson and that’s how you’ve got to learn it.”
Whitlock agreed, and recalled that he fumbled on his first two carries at April’s mini-camp, then didn’t fumble again in minicamp or training camp until Friday night.
“I’ve known June a long time, he recruited me when I was in high school,” said Whitlock, who eventually chose Wake Forest over Jones’ SMU. “He said to me, ‘Hey man, don’t worry about it. I know you’re harder on yourself than we are on you.’
“It’s a learning experience and I embrace it. June believes in me, that I’ll get it done, and I believe I’ll get it done. It won’t happen again.” Receiver Terrence Toliver, who missed all but the first two plays last season with a knee injury, is back on the practice field taking part in individual, but not team, drills.
Jones says Toliver likely won’t be ready for the first two games of the season, in Calgary and six days later in Edmonton.
“I feel probably the same,” said Toliver, who had 1,059 yards in receptions in 2016.
“I’m not 100 per cent yet. I can go downfield, I’ve been doing that for two-three months now. It’s just getting in and out of my cuts on a consistent basis. I’m gaining more confidence each day.”
For the first time in franchise history, the Ticats had three receivers (Luke Tasker, Jalen Saunders and Brandon Banks) go over 1,000 yards last year, and Toliver says he’s looking forward to joining the Jones run and shoot offence that generated the bulk of that yardage.
“We can be like Ottawa, they had four 1,000-yard receivers two years in a row and we could have had that if guys didn’t go down,” he said. NOTES: Running back Alex Green is back in camp after missing eight days to deal with a family matter. … Former McMaster Marauders linebacker Nick Shortill missed practice, but Jones said he should be ready to play in Montreal.