Free Agent Camps 2015 - Seattle Report

[WestCoastJoe]

http://bclions.com/page/team_tryouts

2015 BC LIONS FREE AGENT WORKOUTS
All athletes should dress appropriately with the proper footwear. Each participant is required to pay a $100 registration fee (no cheques). These fees cover the cost of field bookings, insurance and other costs associated with staging a free agent camp. If you have highlight film please bring it along to the workout.

Testing will include: 40-yard timing, pro agility shuttle, football drills and 1-on-1's. Please also note that we will be cutting after the 40 times before the individual and 1 on 1 period commences.

Important: Any player ultimately invited to training camp must have a valid US passport in order to travel across the border into Canada and return to the United States.

2015 BC Lions workouts

Friday March 6, 2015 – Dallas, Texas

Location: Pennington Field (Bedford, TX)

1501 Central Dr., Bedford, TX, USA

Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

Sunday March 8, 2015 –Las Vegas, NV
Location: Rancho High School - 1900 Searles Avenue (Las Vegas, NV)
Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf
added later

Phoenix, Arizona = TBA



Saturday April 18, 2015 – Atlanta, Georgia

Location: Georgia State University practice facility (downtown Atlanta)

188 Martin Luther King Jr Dr, Atlanta, GA 30312

Registration: 9:00 am

Testing: 9:30 am

Surface: Field Turf



Sunday April 19, 2015 – Washington, DC

Location: Bishop McNamara High School - 6800 Marlboro Pike (Forestville, MD)
Registration: 8:30am
Testing: 9:00 am
Surface: FieldTurf



Sunday May 17, 2015 – Seattle, Washington

Location: Rainier Beach High School (Seattle, Washington)

8815 Seward Park Avenue South

Seattle, Washington 98118

Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

[WestCoastJoe]

Finalized Coaching staff announcement soon.

FA camps in the US coming up in two months.

Season approaching fast.

Dallas

Phoenix

Atlanta

Washington, D.C.

Seattle, the other Washington
............

Gotta be a bit of a buzz for the personnel guys and staff to go to these camps. Ya never know when a star will show up.

[WestCoastJoe]

Anybody have any reports from our free agent tryout camps in the USA?

Got a thread going on it ...

Tempting to head down to Seattle?
............

Areas of focus?

QB.

D Line.

Always look at some receivers.

Couple of returners/running backs.

An OL or two.

Always push the veterans.
............

Biggest needs with the Internationals? QB. D Line.

Just IMO ...

[WestCoastJoe]

Friday March 6, 2015 – Dallas, Texas

Location: Pennington Field (Bedford, TX)

1501 Central Dr., Bedford, TX, USA

Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

Just three weeks away. The 2015 season is pretty much upon us.

[Toppy Vann]

Lion free agent try outs have produced some pretty decent prospects for the team and two that come to mind were Buck Pierce and Ryan Phillips.

[WestCoastJoe]

Friday March 6, 2015 – Dallas, Texas

Location: Pennington Field (Bedford, TX)

1501 Central Dr., Bedford, TX, USA

Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf



Phoenix, Arizona = TBA

[Toppy Vann]

Is this a lot more FA camps than usual?

This can mean that the Lions are beefing up the prospects scouting as we know how good some of those finds have been for BC and the CFL.

Or it can mean the new HC sees he has to build a team that he wants as he's not sure he has the talent. In other words, he might be concluding that coaching was not the Lions issue based on film but talent.

[sj-roc]

Friday March 6, 2015 – Dallas, Texas

Location: Pennington Field (Bedford, TX)

1501 Central Dr., Bedford, TX, USA

Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf



Phoenix, Arizona = TBA

I wonder if they counted on running this camp in the snow? The Lions tweeted this pic earlier today. Is that GM WB cleaning up?



"Welp, anyone making the club out of the Dallas camp today will be ready for Grey Cup #CFL #BCLions"


Most March snowfall in 68 years for Dallas-Fort Worth

Several areas in the Dallas/Fort Worth area saw six inches or more, with the official "snow stick" seeing 3.5 inches at DFW airport. ...

The most snow recorded in the area came in 1942, when DFW airport saw just over six inches of snow. ...

Statistics about this snow event

• Official snowfall at DFW Airport was 3.5 inches
• This was our largest snow event since February 2010 (when we had 11.2" on 2/11/10)
• This was our fourth largest snow event on record in March.
• The last time we saw this much snow in March was 68 years ago (1947)
• The highest snowfall amount we've seen is Grapevine with 7.0", Irving appears to be second with 6.2"

"We're underway in Dallas. First free agent camp brining out lots of talent...and a little snow. Happy Friday!"

[WestCoastJoe]

Great post, sj.

I see Wally. Is that Dennis Skulsky in the orange shirt?

Did the snow clear up that fast?

I wonder what the guys get for their $100 as a keepsake. Just the yellow pinnies? Long sleeved black undershirt?

No way on these ... Leggings? Shorts? Gloves?

[B.C.FAN]

The weather in Dallas has been miserable for the past two weeks. I hope it warmed up fast enough for the Lions to do some meaningful evaluations. Conditions should be much better for the next free-agent camp on Sunday in Las Vegas.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.bclions.com/article/free-agent-camp-report

Free Agent Camp ReportFriday, March 6th, 2015

BCLions.com

With temperatures in the single digits this morning and a snow-covered field welcoming members of the BC Lions Football Club, the team’s first free agent camp of 2015 had a Grey Cup feel to say the least.

“We’ve dealt with odd weather in the past, but this is definitely a first,” admits VP of football operations and GM Wally Buono. “They don’t get the white stuff down here very often, so I guess it’s only fitting that a Canadian football team was clearing snow off a field prior to a workout.”

More than 40 players braved the wintery conditions which eventually did warm up as Buono, Lions head coach Jeff Tedford, defensive coordinator Mark Washington, offensive coordinator George Cortez along with members of the club’s football operations department including Neil McEvoy, Ryan Rigmaiden and Geroy Simon began the annual process of finding prospective players for the coming season.

“The conditions weren’t ideal, but playing conditions during the season often aren’t ideal either, so we’re seeing how these guys deal with adversity at a very important time,” noted Tedford. “The opportunity to play professional football is absolutely critical in the lives of these young men and I was very impressed with the level of ability, execution and effort we saw today. It was a great first camp.”

The Texas workout was also the first one for Geroy Simon who returned to the club less than one month ago in a dual role of player personnel evaluator and business advisor.

“It was very special for me to be here with Wally and Jeff as well as the other scouts and coaches, said Simon. “The weather will make this one memorable, but just being here as a member of the Lions and contributing to this process was a very good feeling today.”

Last year’s Texas stop on the free agent circuit resulted in a number of training camp invites and ultimately provided the club with former Purdue grad Torri Williams who appeared in 16 games for the Lions last year.

The club will host another free agent workout in Las Vegas on Sunday and have three more free agent camps planned for Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Seattle in coming weeks.

[WestCoastJoe]

Sunday March 8, 2015 –Las Vegas, NV
Location: Rancho High School - 1900 Searles Avenue (Las Vegas, NV)
Registration: 9:00 am
Testing: 9:30 am
Surface: Field Turf

[sj-roc]

EDIT: I see WCJ already gave this report so I'll axe it from here. On to Vegas on Sunday. Looks like the planned stop in Phoenix is off.

I gather none of our local media have travelled to cover this? LU wrote the following on Wednesday:

Ullrich: Lions counting on U.S. tryout camps to fill holes
By Lowell Ullrich, The Province March 4, 2015

Free agency is a concept for other teams. The Canadian college draft is a crapshoot that often takes years to determine whether a player can be helpful. Players cut by other teams? No thanks. They’ll find their own.

In a nutshell, that’s the personnel playbook of the B.C. Lions.

There’s only one real way for this CFL team to improve, short of juggling their coaching staff, and for the Lions it starts this weekend in earnest with the first of five U.S. free-agent tryout camps.

Every three-down team undertakes similar auditions, but with two defensive starting spots arguably wide open, plus the need to find an eventual successor to 44-year-old kicker Paul McCallum, no process is as important to the Lions this year as the one which starts Friday in Dallas and continues Sunday in Las Vegas.

“I was talking to a friend and he said ‘this is kind of like your Super Bowl,’ ’’ said Ryan Rigmaiden, Lions director of U.S. scouting.

The idea of a true tryout camp where teams are evaluating wannabes has diminished greatly in recent years. But with 11 players off last year’s roster already gone and only two signed replacements to date, there’s a built-in need to perform for Rigmaiden, who joined the Lions full-time last year.

Amazingly, only five players on the Lions current off-season roster have ever played a game with another CFL team. Yet lost amid the dreadful ending to the Lions’ 9-9 season in 2014 is the fact Rigmaiden and fellow talent evaluators Neil McEvoy and Roy Shivers had a standout year.

Four rookie imports, including cornerback Ronnie Yell, lineman Alex Bazzie and nickelback Josh Johnson on defence, became starters. Seven others who came from similar camps landed roster spots, which doesn’t hurt recruiting either, Rigmaiden said.

“What I love about working with the coaches in B.C. is that nobody was afraid to start a player because they were young,” Rigmaiden said from his home in Pinehurst. N.C.

“There’s always a risk when you have that many starters, but fortunately these guys are coming in (now) with some significant playing time. It’s a significant advantage.”

The Lions will only run five camps and are bypassing nine of the top 10 most populated U.S. metro areas, but for the first time are scheduled to have all seven of their top evaluators attend every session over the next two months, including Geroy Simon and new coach Jeff Tedford.

General manager Wally Buono, who went to training camp last year without a replacement for Korey Banks, is doubling the recruiting workload after forcing change with the off-season cuts of Dante Marsh and Eric Taylor.

“As great as our defence was last season, the last three weeks were not very good,” Buono said.

To find a kicker, Rigmaiden will attend a two-day NFL kicking combine starting Monday in Phoenix, hoping minimally to land an import capable of punting and kickoff duty.

“We’ve got holes to fill,” said Rigmaiden. And with the Lions, there’s one preferred way to fix them.

It sounds like the Lions are piggy-backing on the NFL combine in Phx rather than hosting their own event there, which was probably the plan all along.

[sj-roc]

Is this a lot more FA camps than usual?

This can mean that the Lions are beefing up the prospects scouting as we know how good some of those finds have been for BC and the CFL.

Or it can mean the new HC sees he has to build a team that he wants as he's not sure he has the talent. In other words, he might be concluding that coaching was not the Lions issue based on film but talent.

Acc to the LU article I just posted this is fewer ("only five") than they normally run, but it's also the first time they've had so many of their football ops staff attend all camps. LU counts seven, which by my reckoning from the report WCJ just posted would be Buono, Tedford, Mark Washington, George Cortez, Neil McEvoy, Ryan Rigmaiden and Geroy Simon. Not sure if Roy Shivers fits into the plan anywhere.

[Toppy Vann]

Thanks sj-roc. My sense is that this year with the new HC they are really on the lookout for talent as they've created a lot of holes they need to fill with top talent.

Crazy weather everywhere. Usually I'm sweating in Hong Kong even in March but this month and winter has been generally really cool too as the entire world weather systems seemed to be locked in. That Texas weather looked nuts.