Hazelton, receiving crew catch on with Argos
League-leading rookie receiver to step in for injured Owens in home opener
The Toronto Argonauts’ most explosive player, Chad Owens, will miss the team’s home opener Saturday night with an ankle injury. Yet the Argos should be in good hands against the winless Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Three rookie receivers — Vidal Hazelton, Kevin Elliott and Tori Gurley — have combined for more than 800 yards receiving in Toronto’s first five games as quarterback Trevor Harris has used all his personnel.
Hazelton had the biggest game of his career Monday, catching 10 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown against the Hamilton Ticats. He entered Thursday as the league’s leading rookie receiver and was seventh overall with 332 yards on 26 catches. Elliott has 266 yards receiving, while Gurley has 229.
The 33-year-old Owens is 15th in the league with 284 yards on 26 catches, but his numbers have slipped in the last three games — 22, 54 and 21yards. A year ago, he had 43 catches for 548 yards through five games.
Harris isn’t worried about Owens’ production long term.
“It’s just a matter of time before Chad goes off on a12-catch, 200-yard game, and everybody will say he’s back,” Harris said. “He hasn’t lost anything. It’s just that we have a lot of really good receivers. It’s nice that we can spread the ball around.”
Hazelton, Elliott and Gurley are big targets who can leap over smaller defenders or catch passes in traffic.
Hazelton, 27, who is 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds, came to the Argos’ attention thanks to Ticats starting quarterback Zack Collaros, a teammate at the University of Cincinnati. When Collaros signed with Toronto in 2012, he told the suggested the team give Hazelton a look. The Argos put him on their negotiation list and waited until Hazelton’s NFL opportunities dried up.
Hazelton has one of the more col- ourful names in the CFL, and even Harris likes it. “I think it’s better than Swayze Waters, for sure,” Harris said with a laugh, with Hazelton within earshot.
Hazelton explained that his mother, a hairdresser, was searching for a name for her unborn son when she spotted a Vidal Sassoon TV commercial.
Argo coach Scott Milanovich said Hazelton brings a high-energy to the team, even before the team hits the field. Hazelton is in charge of the music selection.
Before practice, he blasts hip hop or R&B songs to get his teammates pumped up. On Wednesday, it was country.
“Guys are just waking up and they hear that music blasting and I’m inside dancing, getting everybody going,” Hazelton said. “I come with a lot of energy.”
Hazelton, Elliott and Gurley are not just fancy catchers. They love blocking and count the number of knockdowns they have on defensive backs.
“Kevin got two last game and Gurley got one,” Hazelton said. “They set the bar for me. We really enjoy blocking. It gets me fired up.”
But catching is his forte. Before he landed in rookie camp, Hazelton studied the CFL’s best receivers like Montreal’s S.J. Green and Edmon- ton’s Adarius Bowman.
“When the coaches asked me what type of receiver I thought I was, I told them, ‘I want to be best receiver and I want to lead in every category.’ ”
He’s working his way up. NOTE: QB Ricky Ray is set to come off the six-game injury list. Ray is not close to returning, although he fired passes with authority at practice on Thursday. The Argos will likely put him back on the six-game injury list.