CFL all-stars

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B.C.FAN
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When your team finishes 5-13, players tend to be overlooked in all-star voting. That clearly happened to the Lions, as Bryan Burnham and Sergio Castillo were the only B.C. players voted to the West Division all-star team by the Football Reporters of Canada. First-place Saskatchewan had 8 players selected, Calgary and Winipeg each had 6 and Winnipeg had 5.

Voters clearly overlooked the fact the Lions had the third best defence in the league, and the best in the second half of the season. I thought T.J. Lee and Branden Dozier deserved strong consideration.

Here are the West and EastDivision all-stars:
https://www.cfl.ca/2019/11/06/2019-cfl- ... announced/
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B.C.FAN
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I forgot about Aaron Grymes, who was the best HB in the league, according to stats tracked by Nik Kowalski for
@LastWordOnCFL. Here are his stats after Week 18:

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B.C.FAN
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As Matt Sekeres notes, there are more ex-Lions than current Lions among the West all-stars, several of whom were let go by Ed Hervey, and a few who left previously under Wally Buono.

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All the more reason why Hervey should be fired for his decision making
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B.C.FAN
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More evidence that the all-star voters were off base in some of their selections. Nik Kowalski's ranking of the top 20 CFL pass defenders lists Aaron Grymes second overall and Saskatchewan's Loucheiz Purifoy (another ex-Lion) fourth, yet they were snubbed for the all-star team in favour of Winnipeg HB Marcus Sayles, who didn't make Kowalski's top 20 list.

Kowalski also refers to T.J. Lee as "Mr. Second Half" for giving up only 10 catches for 86 yards and adding four interceptions in the second half of the season after a slow start, which is true.

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Gridiron Ernie
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Yes, and more fair criticism IMO on all-star voting from Rob Maver, regards punting. It's not sour grapes -- he would have voted for Justin Medlock. He isn't pointing fingers at individual players but in light of Jon Ryan getting the all-star nod for the West, he explains how he'd assess things differently.

The two prime points : as an analogy, he says you don't judge a QB by how far he can throw the ball (i.e. J Ryan led the league in gross distance average, but net distance is by far the more important stat), and secondly, it's noted that Ryan put 12 punts into the end-zone for singles, not strategically desirable, while the rest of the league's punters combined for just 17 singles by way of comparison.

Interesting thoughts, and I agree the voters need to re-examine their rational when voting for this position.
https://3downnation.com/2019/11/08/stam ... fferently/
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B.C.FAN
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Gridiron Ernie wrote:
Fri Nov 08, 2019 3:05 pm
Yes, and more fair criticism IMO on all-star voting from Rob Maver, regards punting. It's not sour grapes -- he would have voted for Justin Medlock. He isn't pointing fingers at individual players but in light of Jon Ryan getting the all-star nod for the West, he explains how he'd assess things differently.

The two prime points : as an analogy, he says you don't judge a QB by how far he can throw the ball (i.e. J Ryan led the league in gross distance average, but net distance is by far the more important stat), and secondly, it's noted that Ryan put 12 punts into the end-zone for singles, not strategically desirable, while the rest of the league's punters combined for just 17 singles by way of comparison.

Interesting thoughts, and I agree the voters need to re-examine their rational when voting for this position.
https://3downnation.com/2019/11/08/stam ... fferently/
The league publishes a wealth of stats about punting, and privately gathered stats are also widely available. It's hard to understand how the voters could be so out of touch. The Riders gave up the highest average punt return by far (15.1 yards) the most big returns of 30 yards or more (8) and had the most punt singles (12), the sixth best net yards per punt (35.4 yards, tied with Toronto), eighth best "true" net punting average (30.6 yards, just marginally better than B.C.'s) and just the seventh highest number of punts outside the numbers (44, ahead of only B.C. and Montreal).

Rob Maver was right. Richie Leone in Ottawa and Justin Medlock in Winnipeg were head and shoulders above other punters in their divisions.
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B.C.FAN
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The CFLPA All-star team, voted on by CFL players, corrected one glaring oversight on the media team by naming the Lions' Aaron Grymes a league all-star, along with fellow Lions Bryan Burnham and Sergio Castillo. I can't argue with any of the players' picks.
OFFENCE
QB Cody Fajardo (Saskatchewan)
OT Chris Van Zeyl (Hamilton)
OT Stanley Bryant (Winnipeg)
OG Brandon Revenberg (Hamilton)
OG Darius Ciraco (Hamilton)
C Ucambre Williams (Calgary)
RB William Stanback (Montreal)
FB Calvin McCarty (Edmonton)
SB Bryan Burnham (BC)
SB Reggie Begelton (Calgary)
WR Brandon Banks (Hamilton)
WR Shaquelle Evans (Saskatchewan)
LS Louis-Phillippe Bourassa (Ottawa)
ST Michael Miller (Winnipeg)

DEFENCE:
DE Willie Jefferson (Winnipeg)
DE Charleston Hughes (Saskatchewan)
DT Almondo Sewell (Edmonton)
DT Dylan Wynn (Hamilton)
MLB Adam Bighill (Winnipeg)
WLB Simoni Lawrence Hamilton)
SLiB Derrick Moncrief (Saskatchewan)
CB Tre Roberson (Calgary)
CB Winston Rose (Winnipeg)
HB Aaron Grymes (BC)
HB Ed Gainey (Saskatchewan)
S Boseko Lokombo (Montreal)
P Richie Leone (Ottawa)
PK Sergio Castillo (BC)
HC Khari Jones (Montreal)
https://cflpa.com/allstar-2019/
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Gridiron Ernie
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:15 pm
The CFLPA All-star team, voted on by CFL players, corrected one glaring oversight on the media team by naming the Lions' Aaron Grymes a league all-star, along with fellow Lions Bryan Burnham and Sergio Castillo. I can't argue with any of the players' picks.
OFFENCE
QB Cody Fajardo (Saskatchewan)
OT Chris Van Zeyl (Hamilton)
OT Stanley Bryant (Winnipeg)
OG Brandon Revenberg (Hamilton)
OG Darius Ciraco (Hamilton)
C Ucambre Williams (Calgary)
RB William Stanback (Montreal)
FB Calvin McCarty (Edmonton)
SB Bryan Burnham (BC)
SB Reggie Begelton (Calgary)
WR Brandon Banks (Hamilton)
WR Shaquelle Evans (Saskatchewan)
LS Louis-Phillippe Bourassa (Ottawa)
ST Michael Miller (Winnipeg)

DEFENCE:
DE Willie Jefferson (Winnipeg)
DE Charleston Hughes (Saskatchewan)
DT Almondo Sewell (Edmonton)
DT Dylan Wynn (Hamilton)
MLB Adam Bighill (Winnipeg)
WLB Simoni Lawrence Hamilton)
SLiB Derrick Moncrief (Saskatchewan)
CB Tre Roberson (Calgary)
CB Winston Rose (Winnipeg)
HB Aaron Grymes (BC)
HB Ed Gainey (Saskatchewan)
S Boseko Lokombo (Montreal)
P Richie Leone (Ottawa)
PK Sergio Castillo (BC)
HC Khari Jones (Montreal)
https://cflpa.com/allstar-2019/
Dunno that I'd argue long and hard with the players' picks, but I should think a good case could be made for Elimimian at MLB over Bighill, and for Andrew Harris at RB over Stanback. The general "feel" I got over the course of the season, speaking personally, supports Elimimian and Harris as having had slightly better years all round than the winners. I checked the stats, and while they never tell the whole story, stats do go a long way.

Sol E had 88 DTs vs Biggie's 61, they both enjoyed 4 sacks, and Biggie had 2 INTs in an equal number of games played. I would have voted for Elimimian.

Andrew Harris's stats show he had about 300 more yards rushing and about 200 more yards receiving than Stanback. And although Stanback played two less games (14) than Harris (16), he would have been very hard pressed to make up the stat difference had he played in two more games, although he could have made it close in rushing stats. I would have voted for Andrew H., but I'm not the one out there trying to tackle these guys. Perhaps Stanback is more difficult to bring down. Or, perhaps the suspension factored into the minds of the players.
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B.C.FAN
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Good points, Ernie. I think Andrew Harris’s suspension factored into the voting although it has been noted that Ottawa long-snapper Louis-Phillippe Bourassa served an identical drug suspension and was still voted to the CFLPA all-star team. Harris’s stats certainly were all-star worthy and he was recently voted as the hardest player to tackle in the separate TSN player poll.

I also was a bit surprised by Bighill’s selection. He was much less noticeable on the Bomber defence than in recent years, and his stats reflect that.
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B.C.FAN
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Congratulations to Bryan Burnham and Sergio Castillo, who were voted to the CFL all-star team by members of the Football Reporters of Canada and the league’s head coaches. They had previously been voted by opposing players to the CFLPA all-star team along with teammate Aaron Grymes.

In all, 17 of 24 position players were named to both teams. The exceptions were the two halfbacks, safety and middle linebacker on defence and a guard, centre and fifth receiver on offence. (The CFLPA selects a fullback instead of a fifth receiver.)

STARS ALIGNED: 2019 CFL ALL-STARS UNVEILED
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