Key signing softens week of misses
Johnson addition helps after Leos come up empty on targeted free agents
The Canadian Press declared the Hamilton Tiger- Cats and Toronto Argonauts the “big winners” on the first day of free agency, which is really the day that matters most when players in the Canadian Football League hit the open market.
Nobody in the CFL media has declared “the biggest loser” in the exercise, but the B. C. Lions might be candidates if anybody chose to do so.
Four players from rival teams publicly targeted by the Lions — Craig Butler, Josh Bourke, Shea Emry and Wayne Smith — either jumped or signed with their old teams.
Three of the Lions free agents — Nick Moore ( Winnipeg), Josh Bell ( Calgary) and Steve Myddleton ( Hamilton) — opted for better offers or situations.
A fourth Lions’ FA, defensive lineman Keron Williams, is playing hard to get. He has hired an Atlanta- based agent and is exploring tryout opportunities in the NFL.
“If I got a phone call today from him ( Williams), I would listen,” Lions general manager Wally Buono said Friday. “My point is, I’m not making any more phone calls. I’ve extended myself more than once, more than twice, more than three times ( waiting for an answer). The offer is not on the table forever.”
The Lions did come up with what amounts to a free- agent consolation gift with Friday’s signing of linebacker Jamall Johnson, who spent five seasons with the Tiger- Cats and is entering his 10th CFL campaign. The twotime East Division all- star ( Johnson was All- CFL in 2009) is being looked on to fill some of the leadership void left with the departure of nickelback Korey Banks to Winnipeg.
Johnson, however, is not a nickel ( a hybrid linebacker/ defensive back) by trade and won’t be asked to take Banks’s former spot. But he is a gift, in the sense that the 31- year- old was informed of the limited parameters in which the Lions expect to use him — “role player, special teams ace” — but he still chose to sign because of other considerations.
Johnson, his wife and daughter live in Burnaby and have extended family in the Vancouver area.
“Going into free agency, I didn’t think I’d hear from the B. C. Lions about an opportunity to come back here and play,” admitted Johnson, a Louisiana native who broke into the CFL with the Lions in 2005.
“When the offer was presented, it put a smile on my face. It probably put a bigger smile on my wife’s face. I’ll get an opportunity to be with my family on a daily basis. And I look forward to networking and making connections that would allow me to be a productive citizen when football is over with. Who knows when that time will be?”
Score one for the Lions, against the perception of more considerable losses.
Still, those failures to sign coveted FAs may appear smaller in your rearview mirror once the season starts.
It is not mid- season, or even preseason, and they don’t give out major awards for a general manager’s performance in February.
Besides, Buono has never been inclined to take a big plunge into the free agency pool, preferring mostly to dip his toe. He has built winning teams on a strong foundation of scouting intelligence, street free agents, tryout camp signings and the occasional crafty trade. In 2005, for instance, he acquired the rights to Friday’s signing, Jamall Johnson — and a first- round pick — from the Calgary Stampeders for the negotiation rights to quarterback Jason Gesser, who made just two career starts.
In January, Buono traded Banks, a five- time CFL all- star, to the Blue Bombers for non- import receiver Kito Poblah, a move that some fans greeted with dismay. Yet Buono believes he’ll find a replacement with more upside. And he believes just as strongly that staying with the status quo is an invitation to complacency and retrenchment. The GM is fond of saying, “You need to burn the ship” to get better.
“The are no free agents on the CFL market today we’re going to invest a lot of money in to solve our problem ( a replacement for Banks),” he explained. “We’re going to find our own. We can still win with the team we have. But we want to get better. I’m not sure we could be better with the same team.”
Buono is philosophical about his inability to land more prime FAs, aware that other factors play into the decision between offers of equal merit.
“People aren’t coming here because it’s not a good place to come,” he said. “If we were getting blown out of the water, financially, by all these others teams, there’d be something wrong. It’s just that it might not be a place of convenience for them. For Jamall, this was a place of convenience — and comfort.”