Cats Cut Nine

As a fan, cutdown day is the day I like least. For a handful of players, their dreams of playing professional football come to an end and it makes me feel for the guys that get cut. It was especially difficult this year because I went to six or so training camp sessions and watched how hard these guys worked. It is one thing to watch them perform on gameday, but if you really want to see these guys work, head to a practice.

Anyway, that is a long-winded way of saying the Cats cut nine players earlier this afternoon. I won't sit here and tell you that all deserved to be kept, because that's simply not true. While all of these players are talented – they wouldn't be at a professional team's training camp if they weren't talented – some of them just weren't talented enough to crack this roster. That said, there were a number of surprising cuts, with three standing out from the rest.

Probably the most surprising was the release of Belton Johnson. Johnson started all of last season, a majority of the 2010 season and spent the entire training camp working with the first-team offense. It was pretty surprising to see him let go, especially because Brian Simmons is still on the team. I thought Johnson outplayed Simmons during the preseason and if the team was going to let go of any veteran offensive lineman, it was going to be Simmons.

Just slightly less surprising was seeing the team get rid of Milt Collins. Collins was acquired less than a year ago in a trade with Calgary and I thought he'd be the team's opening-day starter at safety. It looks like they are very high on rookie safety Craig Ray and that is why Collins was let go.

Finally, we all knew that the team was going to have to part ways with a receiver or two and the first one let go was rookie Chris Duvalt. Duvalt looked good in both mini-camp and training camp, but he didn't show a great deal in either preseason game (to be fair, he got hurt against the Argos). With all the talent that the team has at receiver, a good player was going to be released and Duvalt just happened to be that player.

Training Camp Preview: Special Teams

With training camp about to start (rookies report today, veterans on June 3rd) it's time to look at each position group as we head into the 2012 season. Today, we end the series by looking at special teams.

Whether it was Justin Medlock last season or Marcus Thigpen the season before, the Ti-Cats have been blessed with some amazing special teams play the last couple of seasons. But both of those players are gone; Medlock signed with the Carolina Panthers and Thigpen used the option-year window in his contract to sign with the Miami Dolphins. Replacing the two of them won't be easy, but it must be done.

On the kicking front, the Cats will have a two-man battle between Luca Congi and Josh Maveety. Australian Josh Bartel was brought in as a punter, but I don't think his job is secure by any means. It's always nice to have one player do both jobs to free up another roster space, so if Congi or Maveety impresses enough on both ends, the Cats will go with one kicker. But if Bartel is head and shoulders above the rest, the fact that he counts as a non-import is a huge plus.

At returner, there are no clubhouse leaders, but the team has more than a few options. A couple of guys who are in the mix are rookies Chevon Walker and Chris Duvalt. Both possess tremendous speed, which is an obvious asset in the return game. Terry Grant is another guy who could contribute at returner, but the gruesome leg injury he suffered in Montreal last season is not fully healed, so he will not be ready for the start of the season. The team signed Deon Murphy to compete for a spot at kick returner as well. And watch out for Sam Giguère. He has experience returning kicks and punts, and should the team wish to ease him back into the Canadian game after four years away, they could do so by using him as their returnman at the start of the season.

The final area, and often the most underreported area of any football team, is the kick coverage unit. The Tiger-Cats coverage unit has been superb the past couple of seasons, and with the return of ace special teamer Ike Brown, expect that unit to continue to excel.

There are a lot of question marks surrounding Hamilton's special teams this year, and training camp is going to decide a lot of battles. There will be a lot of new faces on special teams in 2012.