Monday Mailbag, Vol. 4

Last week, in lieu of a mailbag, you got a podcast. Fair trade, I would say. Going forward, weeks that there is a podcast will be mailbag-free simply due to the fact that Mike and I cover a few of your questions when we record.

Anyway, no podcast this week, so let’s mailbag it up!

Any rules changes you’d like to see in 2015?

I am not all that big on making rule changes every year, but there is one I would like tweaked and one I would like eliminated completely. Let’s start with the latter: reviewable pass interference.

It was an interesting experiment, but I don’t think that making pass interference reviewable really made all that much of a difference. If it is the first step towards making all plays reviewable, fine, but by itself it was a bit unnecessary. I didn’t much care for it and would like to see it gone (which won’t happen, but I was asked what I would like to see, not what will occur).

One change I would like to see is something I wanted to see way back in 2011, and that is that all plays occurring in the endzone should be automatically reviewed. Both the CFL and NFL make scoring plays and turnovers subject to automatic review, but I think the CFL should take it one step further and review any play that takes place in the endzone. The play that sparked my initial desire to see this rule enacted took place in a game between the Montreal Alouettes and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. I called for the change then and I am still calling for change now.

You can pick one CFL quarterback, past or present, to lead one drive with the Grey Cup on the line. Who do you choose?

It has got to be Doug Flutie. No one I have ever seen play displayed what can best be described as magic on a football field quite like Doug Flutie. Whether it was with his arms or with his legs, Flutie made plays happen. In the most-important drive in the most-important game, I am giving the ball to the six-time Most Outstanding Player and three-time Grey Cup champion.

Did Taylor Reed play much on special teams in '14 or was he only on the field because Plesius wasn't in the Grey Cup lineup?

I received this question when I was putting together the initial mailbag and it took me some time to find an answer, but I found it and the answer is: yes, Reed was on the punt return team prior to the Grey Cup.

I decided to look at a handful of punt returns to see if I could spot Reed and he was a member of the unit prior to the Plesius’ injury. In fact, during one of Brandon Banks’ scintillating punt returns in the East Division Final against Montreal, Reed was out there blocking. While I cannot say if he was a mainstay on the unit, I can say that the Grey Cup was not the first time Taylor Reed was blocking for Brandon Banks on a punt return.

Why should @AmericanCFLFan become a Ti-Cats fan?

Telling someone why they should cheer for a team is always hard. As Mike and I discussed on a recent episode of Podskee Wee Wee, my Tiger-Cat fandom is almost strictly due to being born in Hamilton. But place of birth is not the only reason someone should like the Tiger-Cats.

The Tiger-Cat fanbase as a whole is pretty awesome. Sure we can be loud (check), annoying (check) and sometimes extremely unlikable (check plus!), but you won’t find many fans out there as loyal as Tiger-Cat fans. Success has not come easy for the Cats since they last hoisted the Grey Cup, but the fans have stayed loyal. The team is in a fairly decent boom period right now – five playoff appearances in the last six years and back-to-back Grey Cup appearances – but yet fans still don’t take it for granted.

You also will not chided for backing a winner. Sure, the Cats have been to the last two Grey Cups, but they lost both. You pick a team like Montreal or Toronto, teams that have won multiple Grey Cups since Hamilton last won theirs – and people might consider you a front runner. That said, the Ti-Cats may win the championship this year, so if you pick the Tabbies, you can tell everyone that you were the magic fan who got them over the top.

The team also has a plethora of players that you can’t help but like, such as Simoni Lawrence and Peter Dyakowski. There are others, but those two guys standout as players that, even if they didn’t play for the Tiger-Cats, I would still be a fan of.

Also, we are Canada’s Team! Haha!

If you have a reason why you think @AmericanCFLFan should become a Tiger-Cats fan, tweet at him and let him know.

What's your opinion of the Bombers current sale, trade any Riders gear for 30 per cent off anything in the store?

It is an interesting concept, though I am not entirely sure of its purpose. Is it to convert Rider fans? Get Bomber fans to buy Rider gear and then trade it in? Something else altogether?

I know the Bombers and Riders are rivals, but this struck me as a little silly. I haven’t seen much outrage, which is quite surprising, but I just don’t get it. If it helps boost Bomber merchandise sales, then it will be a success, but I would really like to know the reason behind it and the genesis of the idea.

Reed, Coleman Are Back in Black

With all the hoopla over the Brandon Banks signing and the start of free agency, I neglected to talk about a couple of pretty significant re-signings by the Ti-Cats. The team made the heavily rumoured extension of Taylor Reed’s contract official, while also announcing an extension for defensive end Antonio Coleman.

Bringing Reed back was a no-brainer. He was the team’s Most Outstanding Rookie nominee last season, finishing with 62 tackles, eight sacks, an interception and a fumble recovery. He played in 15 games in his rookie season, taking over at middle linebacker in mid-July.

Getting Reed backs means the Cats will have all three of their starting linebackers back for at least one more season. Reed manned the middle and formed a formidable trio with Simoni Lawrence and Erik Harris. Hamilton has long been home to some of the best linebacking corps in the CFL – Otis Floyd, Jamall Johnson and Markeith Knowlton, and Johnson, Knowlton and Rey Wiliams were both great units – and the Lawrence-Reed-Harris triumvirate is starting to establish themselves alongside those great threesomes of years past.

There was a lot of vitriol aimed Reed’s way following his penalty in the Grey Cup that wiped out Brandon Banks’ potential game-winning, 90-yard punt return touchdown. But Reed was a solid player in 2014 and one play will not define him. He could have taken the easy road and signed elsewhere, but he chose to return to Hamilton and that speaks volumes. I expect big things from Reed in 2015.

The Coleman signing isn't getting as much publicity, but it might end up being one of the most significant ones the team makes this offseason. During a truncated 2014 campaign, Coleman notched 11 tackles and three sacks in just five games. His season was cut short by an Achilles injury suffered in a September game against Montreal. Not long after, the team brought back Justin Hickman.

And it is with Hickman in mind that the Coleman’s signing becomes that much more intriguing. While rotating players is always a solid idea – look at Hamilton’s stellar interior defensive line for a prime example – signing Coleman means the Cats don’t need to go as hard after Hickman. A Coleman-Norwood tandem might not be as flashy from a name perspective as a Hickman-Norwood duo, but the production could be just prolific. And Coleman likely comes in at a much lower cap number than Hickman will command should he remain unsigned when free agency opens tomorrow, so the team might be getting Hickman-like production at a fraction of the cost. That's not to say the Ti-Cats won't bring Hickman back, but the need isn't as great now that Coleman is back for another season.

Certain signings don’t garner the headlines that others do and the Coleman signing is one of those. But when all is said and done in 2015, we might be looking back and saying that re-signing Antonio Coleman (and Taylor Reed) ended up being amongst the biggest, best and most-important moves the Tiger-Cats made this offseason.

All Quiet on the Southern Front

Since the season ended back in November, we have seen plenty of player personnel moves. A large number of all-star players have been signed, re-signed and traded over the last two months. Jamel Richardson is back in the league; Fred Stamps is now an Alouette; T-Brack is staying in the green and white; and it was all capped off by the big trade between Toronto and Saskatchewan over the weekend.

Yet, with all this movement, it has been eerily quiet in the southern-most point of the CFL map.

The two-time defending East Division champions have extended their top pass rusher and top receiver from a year ago, and inked the Ivy League’s all-time passing leader, but that has been the extent of their offseason moves. Plenty of key cogs from last year’s Grey Cup team – players like Justin Hickman, Brandon Banks and Taylor Reed – still remain unsigned just two weeks before the start of free agency.

There is plenty of concern amongst the Tiger-Cat faithful that few, in any, of these players will be wearing black and gold in 2015 and beyond, and what effect that will have on a team trying to finally win that elusive championship. Losing key players is never a good thing, but the worry might be overblown.

For starters, even if these players get to February 10 without contracts, that does not mean they won’t return. Maybe they test the market and decided Hamilton is still the best place for them.

Secondly, maybe the team has deals in place with some of these players and they just have yet to be announced. There still hasn’t been an official announcement that Luke Tasker is coming back, and his re-signing was reported two weeks ago.

Thirdly, Hamilton is far from the only team that has some big-name players ready to hit the open market. S.J. Green, Weston Dressler, Ben Heenan, Tyler Holmes and Odell Willis, to name a few, all remained unsigned. It is looking like the 2015 free agent class could be one of the most bountiful in recent CFL history.

While all may be quiet on the southern front, that will not last forever. And whether it is a plethora of re-signings or some new players coming aboard, it won’t be quiet in Tiger Town for much longer.