Hambone wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 2:08 pm
OV - 54:40 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 1:45 pm
cms22 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 1:30 pm
why wouldn't you take a NFL player beyond say the 2nd round? choose your round, but i think they should be draftable.
has any canadian actually done the "play the CFL after a reasonable NFL career"? just seems like you've made so much money, you have roots in some american city, you probably want to stay in the USA, get into coaching etc. etc. etc.
Lots of Canadian players have come home to play in the CFL after a decent NFL career.
Mike Schad, Tommy Kane just a couple of names from far back; Cory Greenwood and Jon Ryan are more recent examples.
Quite a few have come back but for whatever reason many make minimal impact and their CFL careers fit cup of coffee status lasting no more than single digit games played. Kane played only 5 games and Schad 7 in their lone seasons after coming back home. Vaughn Martin had a similar CFL short stint signing for 2 years but playing only 7 games in his first year up in the CFL before being released. Greenwood's return has been much more productive and longer lasting despite his injury history. Ryan? Well he's a kicker. He should be OK for another couple of years.
Schad was 32 when he came back; Kane and Martin 30. I think they were pretty much spent by then or else they would have stayed south for a bit longer. Perhaps after having spent 5 to 7 years in the NFL and making decent coin they just found it hard to be motivated in the CFL or simply had too many hard miles on the body to play at the level they expected of themselves?
Seems like the later in the career they return the less impact they make to the point of being disappointments. That may be more magnified now given how much younger the league is. Just looking at BC's revamped roster they have 6 players over 29. In that group is Reilly (only one older than 31), 1 Mexican, KR Rainey and depth TB Rutley. Figueroa (31) and Johnson (30) are the only projected positional starters to crack into the thirtysomething range. The Lions are a much, much younger team than they were in Hervey's first year here.
I wuz in attendance at Lansdowne for Schad's 1st game as a Rough Rider - almost positive it was against BC - watched him quite a bit and he looked strong / kicked-@$$ basically = hardly "done" (read afterwards that some BC D players were trying to get under his skin by razzing him as "Mr big-shot NFLer' or something like that). Too bad he suffered a serious career ending injury (the next TC i think?) cause he could have been a force on the Ottawa O-line for a number of years - a number of O-linemen have played strong in the CFL well into their late 30s.
OTOH - Vaughn Martin did not look that great in his bit of CFL work - maybe more a big body NFL DT type, but the guy was athletic plus had the knowledge of Canadian ball from playing at Western. Maybe dis-interested / not that into it ?
Who knows why a guy who has made pretty big bucks in the NFL for a number of years would want to show-up in the CFL to end their careers? - need the coin still, or maybe just love the game still and are proud to play in the pro league in their own country.
What is a bit puzzling to me, is the number of Canadian players who had a brief cup of coffee in the NFL but then never show up in the CFL after. Lots of examples. Ottawa drafted D-line M. Abdesmad (out of Div I US college ball) a few years back and he had a brief NFL tour, but i guess gave up on football after? - he could have perhaps been an instant starter for Ottawa. Maybe some of them think the CFL is beneath them or they can easily make better coin at another job? - but even making CFL coin for 6 months or so work playing a game you love and still able to explore other work opportunity - why not ? What happened with those 2 US college ball Canuck O-linemen the Lions drafted (in the same draft year i think?) - Richard Mercier and Greg Lotysz (?) - were they inured, dis-interested or did the Lions persue them after they did not pan out in the NFL? Why did Atogwe not show up in the CFL ?