Lions switch up their aerial attack
Burnham and Arceneaux are still here, but they have new teammates and new offence
This time last season, Wally Buono looked at the weapons he’d amassed in the B.C. Lions’ passing game and thought: “We have the best group of receivers in the CFL.”
He didn’t come right out and say it, of course. Then again, he didn’t have to because pundits were lining up to confer best-inthe-league status on the group.
They had Manny Arceneaux and Bryan Burnham in place, who finished third and fourth respectively in receiving yards the season before. They had the talented Nick Moore coming off injury. They had reliable Canadian Marco Iannuzzi.
And, to top it off, they acquired the home run hitter the group might have been lacking in Chris Williams, who was coming off a 1,200-yard, 10-touchdown season in Ottawa.
Buono looked at that group and wondered, what could possibly go wrong?
To this, we can only say there are some questions that should never be asked.
“It wasn’t anybody’s fault,” the Lions’ head coach said from training camp in Kamloops where the team prepared for its pre-season opener tonight in Calgary. “But I don’t know if we could ever get any chemistry between (Williams) and the quarterbacks. We took a chance and it didn’t work out.”
Some might say that — and Burnham certainly will.
“I think we forced Chris Williams in the offence,” the Lions’ all-star said. “He’s the kind of guy you have to make plays for. We’ve always had big, tall receivers who got the 50-50 balls. That’s not Chris and I don’t think we knew how to use him. It felt forced.”
And that showed up in 100 different ways, most specifically in the Lions’ 7-11 record. But let’s look at the bright side: This season, the receivers won’t be overburdened by similar expectations.
The cast in the Lions’ passing game has undergone dramatic revision. There’s a new offensive co-ordinator in Jarious Jackson. Burnham and Arceneaux remain the feature players, but they could be joined by as many as three new starters.
The offensive line, which may be the key to the entire thing, has also been revamped and figures to be a vast improvement on the unit that allowed the most sacks and the most pressures in the CFL last season while managing to get both Jonathon Jennings and Travis Lulay injured.
Add it all up and that’s a lot of new, which usually means a lot of uncertainty. But, while it might not be as flashy, the Lions believe there is more substance in their aerial attack.
We shall see.
“I really think we (have something to prove), especially with all the hype we had last year,” Burnham said. “For Manny, it’s showing people he’s still in his prime. For Jennings, it’s proving he’s an elite quarterback.”
And, for others, it’s proving they can make a difference.
The key to the newly imagined passing game is Jackson’s offence, which revolves around the core principles of rhythm, first-down efficiency and exploiting matchup advantages.
One of the enduring images from last season was Jennings standing in the pocket while scanning the field before he was buried or running for his life from pass rushers.
“I don’t want (Jennings) sitting back there, patting the ball and looking all over the field,” said Jackson, the former Lions quarterback. “That’s going to lead to second-and-15 and those are tough play-calls.”
The Lions plan to start three imports and two Canadians at the receiving positions. CFL vets Ricky Collins and Kevin Elliott, and Tyler Davis, who spent last season with the Lions, are competing for the import spot and all three will make the trip to Calgary, where Jennings is expected to play the first quarter.
The bulk of quarterback snaps will fall to Cody Fajardo, who will likely open the season as Jennings’ backup while Lulay continues his recovery from offseason knee surgery.
Cory Watson, the eight-year CFL vet signed as a free agent out of Edmonton, will hold down one Canadian spot and the other figures to go to Shaq Johnson, one of the stars in camp.
Last year, Johnson caught 30 passes in semi-regular duty for the Lions, but six of those were for 30-plus yards, the secondhighest total on the team behind Burnham. He might be the deep threat Williams never was.
“He’s been a force at training camp,” Buono said.
Still, the passing game will be as productive as Burnham and Arceneaux make it. Burnham, at 28, should be in his prime but Arceneaux, entering his eighth season with the Lions, turns 31 in September.
It can reasonably be asked if the law of diminishing returns is starting to set in, but Arceneaux is a tireless worker, a team leader and might be the best conditioned athlete in the CFL.
Buono reported that during wind sprints in Kamloops earlier this week, the veteran led the way and let everyone know he was leading the way.
“He’s talking while he’s doing it, but he’s making the guys work harder,” the coach said.
“I’ve been around a lot of hardworking guys and I don’t want to take anything away from them,” said Jackson, who played with Arceneaux. “But Manny’s on a different level. He does things that make you wonder. I mean, he talks to DBs when he’s running routes. But, at the end of the day, he’s going to put on his work boots and make plays.”
More than ever, he just has to make enough of them this year.