Lions New Signings from US

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JohnnyMusso
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BC Lions GM and head coach Wally Buono announced today that international defensive linemen Lazarius Levingston, Darius Allen and Andrew Hudson have signed contracts with the team.

92- Lazarius LevingstonLevingston returns to the Lions after being a late-season addition during the CFL’s annual practice roster expansion period in 2015. The former Seattle Seahawks draft pick in 2011 and Tamp Bay Buccaneer in 2012 appeared in the final regular season game for the Lions recording one defensive tackle.

Allen action
Photo courtesy Bill Sabo – CSU-Pueblo athletics

Allen enjoyed a tremendously successful collegiate career at Colorado State (Pueblo) before signing with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent last year. The talented defensive end was selected as the top defensive player among all Division II, III and NAIA schools in 2014 after he piled-up 39 defensive stops and 13 sacks.

Hudson actionHudson played his collegiate football down the road at the University of Washington and enjoyed a productive four-year stay with the Huskies recording 82 individual tackles, 26 tackles for a loss and 21 sacks over 49 games. The California native was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Buffalo Bills in 2015 and appeared in three preseason games.
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B.C.FAN
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All three look like potential challengers to Alex Bazzie and Craig Roh for the international DE position. Allen and Hudson were the most productive at the college level. They're all in the 240-270-pound range typical of CFL defensive ends.

Allen, Darius DE I 6'3 240 23 Colorado State - Pueblo
Selected as the top defensive player among all Division II, III and NAIA schools in 2014 after he piled-up 39 defensive stops and 13 sacks.

Hudson, Andrew DE I 6'3 245 23 Washington
Enjoyed a productive four-year stay with the Huskies recording 82 individual tackles, 26 tackles for a loss and 21 sacks over 49 games.

Levingston, Lazarius DE I 6'3 270 28 LSU
Played 48 career games at LSU, with his first three seasons at defensive end before moving to defensive tackle as a senior. He amassed 70 career tackles to go with 15.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.

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Qman
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just open the wallet for Hickman -- he is 30 and proven. next two years will be good.
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Coast Mountain Lion
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I was wondering if Lazarius Levingston was related to former Argo Bashir Levingston, but not that I can see (one from Louisiana and one from California). Not a name you see every day. But then there's also hoopster Cliff Levingston who doesn't appear to be related to any of them.
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Rammer
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Coast Mountain Lion wrote:I was wondering if Lazarius Levingston was related to former Argo Bashir Levingston, but not that I can see (one from Louisiana and one from California). Not a name you see every day. But then there's also hoopster Cliff Levingston who doesn't appear to be related to any of them.
Does this make it an unrelated topic?

DL is always a place that you want to be the best in the league. Hopefully one of these guys is the next Cameron Wake. While the Lions DL as a whole started off slow in 2015, mainly due to being undersized, the DL finished strong, maybe missing an impact DE.
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Tristan Okpaulogo signed with the Cardinals so the 3rd DE on my wish list wound up elsewhere (same as Willie Jefferson and Justin Capiciotti). It's looking more and more likely that the Leo's next rush end will be an "unknown", one of these 3 or maybe Maxx Forde or Ese M-A will step it up. Hall and Hickman are still available I believe but the fact they are still up for grabs make me think there isn't a big demand for their services. Wally is probably going for the cheaper alternative.
green road kill
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I don't think we'll see alot of change to the Dline from last year,and really there
isn't a whole lot of reason there should be.By years end they were playing some pretty good football.The finished the year 1 sack behind Cal. and Edm.
The more the secondary matured threw the year, the better the front 7 became. We paid the price early on for the young pups in the secondary ( the loss of Phillips for 4 games was huge).
Hopefully with the signing of Eden and Banks, a solid vet and Eden a talented Canuck,that won't be the case this year.

Brooks,Minter, and Westerman will plug the middle nicely, Manard and Bazzie,Roh off the edge. I've seen teams start with a lot less than we have
I may be a little too optomistic,but all I can say is IS IT JUNE YET.
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WestCoastJoe
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green road kill wrote:I don't think we'll see alot of change to the Dline from last year,and really there
isn't a whole lot of reason there should be.By years end they were playing some pretty good football.The finished the year 1 sack behind Cal. and Edm.
The more the secondary matured threw the year, the better the front 7 became. We paid the price early on for the young pups in the secondary ( the loss of Phillips for 4 games was huge).
Hopefully with the signing of Eden and Banks, a solid vet and Eden a talented Canuck,that won't be the case this year.

Brooks,Minter, and Westerman will plug the middle nicely, Manard and Bazzie,Roh off the edge. I've seen teams start with a lot less than we have
I may be a little too optomistic,but all I can say is IS IT JUNE YET.
:thup:

Yup. Getting hungry for some CFL action.
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David
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green road kill wrote:I don't think we'll see alot of change to the Dline from last year,and really there
isn't a whole lot of reason there should be.By years end they were playing some pretty good football.The finished the year 1 sack behind Cal. and Edm.
The more the secondary matured threw the year, the better the front 7 became. We paid the price early on for the young pups in the secondary ( the loss of Phillips for 4 games was huge).
Hopefully with the signing of Eden and Banks, a solid vet and Eden a talented Canuck,that won't be the case this year.

Brooks,Minter, and Westerman will plug the middle nicely, Manard and Bazzie,Roh off the edge. I've seen teams start with a lot less than we have
I may be a little too optomistic,but all I can say is IS IT JUNE YET.
The key is to find a solid replacement for Khreem Smith. A veteran under 30 with NFL experience would be a good fit here. I thought FA Tristan Okpalaugo would have been that guy, but he has been signed by Arizona.

As for the secondary, it improved greatly last year when our pass rush improved. Funny how that works.... :wink:


DH :cool:
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TheLionKing
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David wrote:
As for the secondary, it improved greatly last year when our pass rush improved. Funny how that works.... :wink:


DH :cool:
The pass rush was there all along. If you don't believe it, Wally would be glad to show you the films. :roar:
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pennw
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TheLionKing wrote:
David wrote:
As for the secondary, it improved greatly last year when our pass rush improved. Funny how that works.... :wink:


DH :cool:
The pass rush was there all along. If you don't believe it, Wally would be glad to show you the films. :roar:
At the end of the season our pass rush was probably one of the best in the league . Earlier BC was dead last in sacks and pulled half way through the ranks by the end , right up there with the best , from way back . I'll give credit where it is due .
In fact the defense across the board improved very much by season's end . So I'm optimistic about the defense going into next season and glad to have MW back . Chris Jones must of had a similar opinion as he seemed to play the exact same defense in the play offs , beating the Stamps with it .
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pennw wrote:
TheLionKing wrote:
David wrote:
As for the secondary, it improved greatly last year when our pass rush improved. Funny how that works.... :wink:


DH :cool:
The pass rush was there all along. If you don't believe it, Wally would be glad to show you the films. :roar:
At the end of the season our pass rush was probably one of the best in the league . Earlier BC was dead last in sacks and pulled half way through the ranks by the end , right up there with the best , from way back . I'll give credit where it is due .
In fact the defense across the board improved very much by season's end . So I'm optimistic about the defense going into next season and glad to have MW back . Chris Jones must of had a similar opinion as he seemed to play the exact same defense in the play offs , beating the Stamps with it .
no way best in the league, improved yes.

DL still needs to be upgraded significantly

You win in CFL: best QB, best DL, and best cdns
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pennw
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I said one the best , not THE best . However I would find it interesting to know the sack talley for the last 9 games and see how BC stacks up. I get the feeling they would be up front or close to it.
TheLionKing
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Took the Lions half the season to realize that Craig Roh was not a defensive tackle. Things began to turn with the insertion of Zach Minter
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B.C.FAN
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pennw wrote:I said one the best , not THE best . However I would find it interesting to know the sack talley for the last 9 games and see how BC stacks up. I get the feeling they would be up front or close to it.
Correct. B.C. narrowly led the league with 29 sacks in the final 9 games of the season, after ranking seventh with 19 sacks in the first 9 games.

SACKS - SECOND HALF OF 2015
BC 29
OTT 28
MTL 28
WPG 28
CAL 26
TOR 22
EDM 20
SAS 17
HAM 14
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