It’s a truism to say that competition only makes the competitors better. With a flurry of off-season moves in the Montreal Alouettes organization, particularly at the wide receiver and slotback positions, it’s safe to say that the Alouettes receiver competition will only make each new player better. They will have to compete all the harder for a starting spot this season.
The team finished their roller coaster 2014 campaign with many questions around their receivers. Slotback S. J. Green was without a contract and negotiations went sour with general manager Jim Popp at the start of the new year. All-Star Duron Carter unsurprisingly jumped the CFL ship and signed a contract with the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL.
Things looked bleak in the Montreal front office for a while until Green inked a three-year deal with the club on January 28. that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league. After realizing how important Green was to his team, Popp eased up on the negotiations and gave the eight-year veteran what he wanted to keep him in Montreal, the only city Green has played for since joining the league in 2007.
Green finished the season with 53 catches, 835 yards and 4 touchdowns, but was far off his 2013 numbers (83 rec, 1197 yards, 13 TDs) mainly because he was in Carter’s shadow. Green was unhappy about being the second choice to Carter, and would surely have tested the free agent market. With Carter heading down south, Green is now undoubtedly the number one target for Jon Crompton.
Twelve days before the team gave Green his extension, the Alouettes shipped the young Kenny Stafford to the Edmonton Eskimos for another eight-year veteran slotback in Fred Stamps. He too had another sub-par season in 2014, his role as the number one receiver similarly stripped away from him in Edmonton by Adarius Bowman. From 1310 and 1259 yards in 2012 and 2011, respectively, Stamps dropped down to only 545 yards last season and caught only two majors compared to the nine and 11 in ’12 and ’13.
The addition of the old-guys-on-the-receiving-block didn’t stop there for Popp. In just the third day of free agency, 29-year-old Samuel Giguere, a product out of the University of Sherbrooke, signed a one-year deal with his home province team. The wideout has caught a single touchdown in each of his three CFL seasons with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats after playing in the NFL. He amassed 549, 474 and 520 yards in the three seasons behind the likes of Andy Fantuz, Bakari Grant, and Brandon Banks. You could argue, though, that Giguere’s signing is a marketing stunt, designed to draw more French-Canadian fans to Percival Molson Stadium.
The last piece Popp added is another fan-favourite slotback in Nik Lewis. The two-time Grey Cup champ joins the Alouettes after a drop in his numbers with Calgary in the last two seasons; he was at 400 yards in 2013, followed by 377 yards in 2014. In the first nine seasons of his career, all with the Stampeders, Lewis was a 1000-yard receiver and an All-Star in the latter three, receiving for over 1200 yards each season.
Giguere, Stamps, and Lewis join the likes of Chad Johnson, Brandon London, and Eric Deslauriers in the receiving group. Johnson, Deslauriers and London all get the short end of the stick in this situation as the trio will not get as much playing time as they thought they would get before the flurry of moves.
All six men, however, are proven veterans of the game. They will have to battle hard to get the passes and the playing time. Giguere is the only one under 30 years of age (he will hit the milestone in July) and injuries are bound to happen – Deslauriers missed half of last season due to an injury and Johnson all but disappeared from the club with a concussion after only four games.
For now, the addition of the three vets seems like a smart move for Popp. The six will push each other harder from the time training camp opens in June until – the Als hope – their season finishes with a Grey Cup in late November. Young receivers on the team like Kyle Graves, Dobson Collins, and the youngest, Brandan Green, will earn tremendous knowledge apprenticing for the six all-stars.
There are no doubt plenty of lingering questions about their signings, but the Alouettes’ receiver competition will do nothing but good for Montreal in 2015.
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