As we all know Cornish and Harris finished one and three respectfully in rushing last year. Throw in a guy like Messam who is a former 1000 yard rusher is there a good nucleus of good Canadian backs in the league? Will most teams eventually feature a Canadian back? Clearly coaches are giving these guys a chance instead of just throwing them on special teams, are guys like Harris and Cornish the exception, or eventually the norm?

If the CIS & NCAA can produce backs that can play than why not? There's another Canadian back in Calgary who because of Cornish won't play much. Matt Walter may be prime to be drafted by Ottawa this December. 

well, ill play the devils advocate here and suggest that one of.the reasons canadian RBs are more successful these last 4 seasons are due to the LB and DLs gearing more towards pass rush and pass coverage then before.. we are currently in a cycle that defenses are more tuned towards stopping the passing game with pressure at the qb and having that sam lb who is essentially a db. hell, some wil lbs are looking smaller and smaller and less squads have a beast MLB like in the days past.

not a slight at the canadian ball carriers as they have improved in leaps and bounds but until a few more canuck backs crack the nfl rosters i simply dont see that many more starring in the cfl..

I would actually go so far as to suggest that the reason we see more NI rbs these days is because we see more I offensive linemen. Used to be that you'd go all NI on the o-line but defensive lines are getting so good these days you can't always find a NI who can do the job well enough so you have to make up the NI spot elsewhere and why not rb? It's a very much an athlete first position and no one doubts that the CIS can produce athletes. 

I would actually go so far as to suggest that the reason we see more NI rbs these days is because we see more I offensive linemen. Used to be that you'd go all NI on the o-line but defensive lines are getting so good these days you can't always find a NI who can do the job well enough so you have to make up the NI spot elsewhere and why not rb? It's a very much an athlete first position and no one doubts that the CIS can produce athletes.

thats a good call as well.. the need for a "game changing" RB isnt as strong as the need for an import tackle at times..

Cornish & Harris are as good as any American backs in the CFL or better so if they can play then they are ratio breakers. Free to play an American somewhere else. That's why so valuable.

The only thing is, if you have a Canadian at starting tailback then you need a backup Canadian as well. Due to the fact if the starting canadian back goes down, he has to be replaced by an American ball carrier. If there isn't one then it starts a ratio chain reaction. OTOH, if an American starting back goes down & he's replaced by another then the ratio stays the same & less of an impact a single injury at that position would have on the team.

RB's are often referred to in the NFL as the most replaceable position on the football field.  A good offensive line can open up holes for the RB and protect the QB, and the dropoff between good and poor linemen is greater than the dropoff between good and poor RB's. Linemen play a much larger role in what in the CFL has always been a passing league.

 

So in a league where you must field 7 starting Canadians, and in most cases American players are superior players to Canadians... why not at the most replaceable position?

interesting thread... i dunno if these guys can rush the ball or not...