Ottawa Redblacks will take their lumps
Santa came early last week for the Ottawa Redblacks, and while he left behind a few nice presents, I question whether the CFL’s newest team was on Santa’s naughty or nice list.
Let’s face it, the “toys’’ made available to the Redblacks by the other general managers around the league were … well, let’s just say that most of the players from which Ottawa had to choose were not on Santa’s list, or anyone else’s for that matter. Who are these guys? Twenty-four players were selected, but I only recognize a handful who can be considered proven, pro-level talent.
If I were rating the overall expansion draft, I would give it a C — as in a lump of Coal.
But the organization managed to deal with what it was offered and deserves an A ... for Agg Nog? (Sorry.)
But you know what can happen to a lump of coal with a little pressure, and time.
It is unfortunate that the Saskatchewan Roughriders lost an all-star-calibre player, a great man, and a fine teammate in defensive tackle Keith Shologan.
The Riders’ brass rolled the dice on Shologan, perhaps hoping his contract — reportedly worth $130,000 per year — might be a deterrent. The Redblacks were not deterred in the least.
But if the Riders hadn’t lost Shologan, who would it have been? Chris Getzlaf ? A member of the offensive line?
It would have been someone notable, and it just happened to be Sholo.
It is a tough pill to swallow for someone who dreamed of retiring a Rider, but that is the nature of the game and we know the rules as soon as we sign our first contract.
Not to sound too much like Scrooge, but let’s move on, as I am sure Keith will.
From the Redblacks’ perspective, they now have a cornerstone around which to build their defence. Sholo is easily the most talented player on their roster and is someone they can start marketing as the face of the franchise.
The Redblacks are going to get a lot of mileage out of him, safety Eric Fraser and the rest of their defence over the next three to five years while the team takes its lumps on the scoreboard.
And speaking of taking lumps … if the team doesn’t spend some of its salary-cap money on the offensive line, the biggest steal of the draft — quarterback Kevin Glenn — will be earning his salary from the injured-reserve list.
Centre Marwan Hage, claimed from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, is a perfect fit for this new franchise. I talked about Sholo being good in the locker room, but there might not be anyone better in the league right now at bringing a group together than this 10-year veteran.
Hage is outstanding in the community and is fluent in English, French and Lebanese — the three (un)official languages in Ottawa.
My favorite thing about Hage is that, like Sholo, he doesn’t take any garbage from anyone. Plus, both players have a broad face and a little round belly that shakes when they laugh like a bowl full of jelly — and these men like to laugh!
Joe Eppele appears to be one of the offensive guards lining up next to Marwan but, other than that pair, I don’t recognize any other presents up front. That’s where coaching comes in.
Even though Mike Gibson’s title is offensive coordinator, he is an offensive line coach through and through. And even though the players don’t always like his methods, he makes them better.
Coach Gibson took this old lump of coal, applied more pressure than any person should have to go through, but what came out was a championship diamond.
As we evaluate the draft further, we can recognize that this team is being built with coaches and players who have worked together before. This means that they don’t need to waste too much time getting on the same page as far as terminology goes and in terms of understanding what the players and coaches are expecting out of each other.
This translates into making the off-field “stuff ’’ fit together quicker and more efficiently because the time on the field is spent “doing it” and not talking about “it.” It is these little things that will turn a group of talented players into a team on the field.
When we look at the offensive brain trust, we see that Gibson and Glenn have worked together as far back as 2005, when they were both with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. They were later reunited with the Tiger-Cats and Calgary Stampeders. Gibson also worked with Hage in Hamilton.
As a result, these three guys already speak the same language. Essentially, they will be playing in an offence they already know — a luxury that will not be enjoyed by players on the Montreal Alouettes, B.C. Lions and Edmonton Eskimos when those teams open training camp with new offensive coordinators in 2014.
Maybe it’s time to check my list twice. I may have been a little harsh with rating the draft as a C.
Upon further review, I give it a D … for Diamonds.
But we will have to see which free agents want to join these merry men in the nation’s capital, because Ottawa has a lot of money to spend, a lot of positions to fill, and a bright future for those players willing to do some heavy lifting to get the franchise off the ground.
(I value your feedback at Mike.Abou-Mechrek@InvestorsGroup.