The first place to start is with the signing of Running Back Avon Cobourne. Wow! That's all I can really say about that. Not only is Cobourne an excellent player, but taking him deals a blow to the Montreal Alouettes. He was probably the top player available, and the Cats grabbed him. Wow!
The Cobourne signing means that the Tiger-Cat career of DeAndra' Cobb is over. Cobb was good for the Tiger-Cats, but Cobourne is a significant upgrade.
The Cats also signed Defensive Back Daniel Francis, formerly of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. With the Cats having whiffed re-signing Geoff Tisdale (who went to Calgary), and on signing Dwight Anderson (who went to Montreal), Lin-J Shell (who re-upped with the Argos) and Jonathan Hefney (who re-upped with the Bombers). It sucks that the Cats could not land or keep one of the elite-level players, but perhaps Francis is the right fit for the Tabbies. I'm not overly excited about this signing, but I'm not upset with it either.
According to Drew Edwards, the Cats have also reached agreements with two other former Roughriders, Offensive Lineman Wayne Smith and Linebacker Rey Williams. Smith is a former Tiger-Cat and Williams is a very nice Linebacker. Sadly, the signing of Williams might spell the end of the line for one of my personal favourite Tiger-Cats, Otis Floyd. I hope that is not the case, but Williams is five years younger, and as Obie always says, "Better is better."
Would Floyd work as a DE? That's probably the only way to keep him, and he's got the quickness though probably not the legs to do battle all game long.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great day. I was not so worried that we hadn't made any announcements until the afternoon, because to me free agency is how you tweak your team, not build it. I expect Womack and Obie to have a full slate of newcomers trying out anyway.
But with these four signings, 3 of them very key, we've done more than tweak (holding judgment on Smith since he's been laid up with injuries the past couple seasons, but if he can return to his old form that would be fantastic).
Josh, I think Francis will turn out to be the sleeper in all this - he had a very good year in 2010, his second in the league. This gives us a potential starting secondary of Hinds-Francis-Barker-Shivers-Smith with Heyward and Dennis in the mix as well as the NI backups... no guarantee some new guy won't win a job instead, but if Shivers can play like he did in Toronto and Smith like he did his first few games back before being injured, we may have a group Chamblin can mould into something good.
Francis, to me, is the wild card. I am tempering my expectations, if only because I don't want to put too much on him so soon. If my comments about him came off in any way as negative, that was not my intention. I just want to see where he'll fit, and my hope is that he fits in perfectly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it is always hard to judge DBs because the best ones don't see very much action.
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