RHÉANNE M.

WINNIPEG, MB., May 11, 2017 –  The Winnipeg Blue Bombers today announce the club has invited Winnipeg Rifles wide receivers Xander Tachinski (#73) and Brendan Naujoks (#74), running back Michael Ritchott (#76), and defensive back Andrew Ricard (#77) to take part in the club’s three-day rookie camp commencing Wednesday, May 24. The players will continue with the team through the first part of the main training camp.

Tachinski and Ritchott attended part of last season’s rookie camp, and most recently played in their third and fourth years with the Rifles, respectively. Naujoks and Ricard have both spent three seasons with the Rifles.

“The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have continued to try to invest in the growth of younger football players within Manitoba,” said General Manager Kyle Walters. “This will be a great experience for all of them to be on the field with professional players, and to continue to grow as athletes.”

Quarterbacks and CFL newcomers will report to Winnipeg and will be on the field for the opening of rookie camp on Wednesday, May 24th. Veterans report on May 26th and will begin practicing on May 28th.

The Blue Bombers will play two pre-season games:  June 10th at Mosaic Stadium in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and June 15th at Investors Group Field against the Edmonton Eskimos.

 

Edited June 5, 20178 yr by Mr Dee

12 hours ago, Mr Dee said:

 

I like the appropriate punctuation in this tweet... Nichols is the #1 guy, no question about it... LeFevour and Davis are battling for #2... the new guys are battling for (likely) 1 PR spot...

I heard one news outlet (I forget who, probably just a radio person reading the sports news) say the new QBs would be competing with Nichols, Davis and LeFevour for a spot on the team... and my reaction was, more like they're competing against each other for a spot on the PR...

Major camp battles in my mind:

There are two big ones, in terms of impact on the starting lineup.

Faith Ekakitie vs. Jake Thomas - this is more about snaps, as in who is going to get more. They'll both play but how much?

Kyle Knox vs. Nick Temple vs. George Stone vs. Kyrie Wilson - this is the big one, as I would imagine only one of these guys makes the roster and one makes the PR but two will go home. Dark horse in my mind is Kyrie Wilson, I think he's got a sneaky chance to win the job.

Other than that ...

Green vs. Jeffcoat, Apodaca vs. Bell, Stafford (or Denmark, truthfully) vs. Burton/Lowder/Thorpe

I think we'll see a surprise or two. But the roster is mostly set.

(Obligatory Bruce Johnson vs. the World also)

26 minutes ago, Mike said:

(Obligatory Bruce Johnson vs. the World also)

 

1 hour ago, Mike said:

Major camp battles in my mind:

There are two big ones, in terms of impact on the starting lineup.

Faith Ekakitie vs. Jake Thomas - this is more about snaps, as in who is going to get more. They'll both play but how much?

Kyle Knox vs. Nick Temple vs. George Stone vs. Kyrie Wilson - this is the big one, as I would imagine only one of these guys makes the roster and one makes the PR but two will go home. Dark horse in my mind is Kyrie Wilson, I think he's got a sneaky chance to win the job.

Other than that ...

Green vs. Jeffcoat, Apodaca vs. Bell, Stafford (or Denmark, truthfully) vs. Burton/Lowder/Thorpe

I think we'll see a surprise or two. But the roster is mostly set.

(Obligatory Bruce Johnson vs. the World also)

Mlb will be the marquee battle in camp. I agree about Wilson. He's the biggest of the group and probably the best athlete. I don't know that he'll start right off the bat, but I think they'll keep him around.

The battle for starting Canadian receiver will be interesting. You have to think they're really hoping Richards can win the job.

I think the battle for field corner will be wide open. Frederick ended the season starting, but Roberts was respectable there before he got hurt, and we've brought in some pretty decent prospects.

From Darren Bauming - Bombers TC Sched:

 

1 minute ago, Noeller said:

From Darren Bauming - Bombers TC Sched:

 

About damn time this season gets started.....

5 Days until the start of Rookie Camp!      5 QBs signed to be at Rookie Camp!

That can't be a coincidence...

freaking out waiting for the start of camp. Gonna fire up a game from last year on YouTube one of these nights.....get primed!

On 2017-05-18 at 9:25 AM, Mike said:

Stafford (or Denmark, truthfully)

is it stafford or denmark, or stafford and denmark?

I thought both guys were going to start.

Oboy Oboy Oboy Oboy Oboy.....

Been getting really pumped for a about a week now. I got a feeling this is going to be a really fun team to watch this year.

So as per MBB tradition, will the dark horse everyone likes to make the roster survive the first round of cuts?

I'm tardy to picking an arbitrary favourite new guy to make the roster, thus guaranteeing he gets cut after the first week... (Sorry, Jhomo...) Once I see the opening day of Rookie Camp roster, I'll be sure to make a selection...

@DarrinBauming

The #Bombers have room to add a few players, if they so wish, prior to rookie camp launching next week. Expect some more additions.

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

I'm tardy to picking an arbitrary favourite new guy to make the roster, thus guaranteeing he gets cut after the first week... (Sorry, Jhomo...) Once I see the opening day of Rookie Camp roster, I'll be sure to make a selection...

Offense - Stephen Burton

Defense - Jackson Jeffcoat

CURSE IS APPLIED

With camp almost underway, Ed Tait has a series of pieces coming, previewing the different position groups...to start: 

 

http://www.bluebombers.com/2017/05/19/positional-preview-specialists/

We sure do.

4 hours ago, Mike said:

Offense - Stephen Burton

Defense - Jackson Jeffcoat

CURSE IS APPLIED

I offer you two chickens and a promise to cleanse my chakras if you take Jeffcoat off your list.

 

On 5/17/2017 at 10:07 PM, Taynted_Fayth said:

I suppose there may be a potential battle for #2 between LeFevour and Davis,  but realistically only real QB battle at camp will be between Apodaca and Bell for a PR spot

I think its a shoe in that lefevour, davis, and nichols are our active qbs. The rooks are gonna be in a scrap to be the development guy, with a possibility of both being cut. Either rook becoming as high as QB 3 out of camp sans injuries is probably the longest shot of camp. 

Nick Temple wins the MLB job. Outside chance Duncan wins a receiver job.

20 hours ago, Mr Dee said:

5 Days until the start of Rookie Camp!      5 QBs signed to be at Rookie Camp!

That can't be a coincidence...

Geez by that logic we won't have any QBs left by the start of TC. Talk about jinxing...  

Edited May 20, 20178 yr by Jacquie

On 5/19/2017 at 3:01 PM, Nash00 said:

So as per MBB tradition, will the dark horse everyone likes to make the roster survive the first round of cuts?

Im picking seastrunk to be the new tony ortiz. First team all TC star, pre season stud, but a guy with out much of a chance at RB. Could be roberson too. This is hands down the most talented group of RBs ive ever seen us have. Roberson, seastrunk, and flanders, on top of harris? (I like what normand can do a lot too) With our ol and ol depth? For my money its the position to watch for sheer entertainment value in camp. 

Got knox winning the MLB job. But I think Hurl has an out side chance to start / play as many reps as any one at MLB this year.

Gonna say ekakitie and jake the snake start out close to even splitting time at DT with ekakitie quickly earning more of the reps while jake takes more back as he hits the rookie wall late in the year. 

Lefevour winning the no2 spot with apodaca winning the development spot. 

First big cut? neufeld. 

Edited May 20, 20178 yr by wbbfan

We have issues if Hurl is our primary mlb

16 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Im picking seastrunk to be the new tony ortiz. First team all TC star, pre season stud, but a guy with out much of a chance at RB. Could be roberson too. This is hands down the most talented group of RBs ive ever seen us have. Roberson, seastrunk, and flanders, on top of harris? (I like what normand can do a lot too) With our ol and ol depth? For my money its the position to watch for sheer entertainment value in camp. 

Got knox winning the MLB job. But I think Hurl has an out side chance to start / play as many reps as any one at MLB this year.

Gonna say ekakitie and jake the snake start out close to even splitting time at DT with ekakitie quickly earning more of the reps while jake takes more back as he hits the rookie wall late in the year. 

Lefevour winning the no2 spot with apodaca winning the development spot. 

First big cut? neufeld. 

On 5/20/2017 at 5:55 PM, wbbfan said:

 

Lefevour winning the no2 spot with apodaca winning the development spot. 

 

Only rarely does the starting QB play all 18 games .... Lapo did a good job turning Glenn into a real QB .... I hope he can do this with Davis & Lefevour this year ... I expect they will both get time but this might be the year that Lefevour turns the corner .... otherwise he is just a hack and we will need Davis to step up