The CFL releasing its division all-star teams Thursday morning. 9 members of the Riders have made the grade. On offence, recognition goes to Kerry Joseph, D-J Flick, Gene Makowsky and Jeremy O'Day. On the defensive side of the ball, all-stars are Fred Perry, Reggie Hunt, Maurice Lloyd and James Johnson. Luca Congi was named the all-star kicker. The all-stars were selected by the Football Reporters of Canada, the CFL head coaches and the fans through a contest with Future Shop.
Nine Riders Make Western Division All-Star Team
Submitted by Mitchell Blair on November 1, 2007 - 9:53am.
Comments on the All-Stars
There are only two picks there that I think are questionable, and one that is very good and that I’m very glad to see.
The very good one is James Johnson. He was a lock down CB for the first part of the season, and then I think he started trying to do a little too much. He started coming off his man to make plays on other receivers more and he got burned a couple of times, but he continued to make other big plays as well, like the big forced fumble and some key pass break-ups where he came off his man. He’s got all the tools to be an all-star for many years to come, which means that the loser fans will probably try to key in on him and cut him down incessantly too, just like they do to Kerry and Matt.
The two questionable ones are Flick and Congi. Flick really stepped up after Matt went down, but picking him ahead of Copeland is still very iffy. Luca I think will also be an all-star many times in the future, but I don’t think he was better than DeAngelis and McCallum this year.
flick deserves it
He led the league in receiving touchdowns. and his other numbers are solid. We wouldn't have the record we have if he wasn't here this year.
I am wondering however, if the 25% for fans voting online maybe helped push a few palyers over the top, like congi and johnson. They both had decent years but . . .
Flick may have been put over
Flick may have been put over the edge by fans, but Johnson wouldn’t have gotten that many votes from fans. Johnson has been playing like an all-star from very early on in the season, but a certain group of fans have decided to bash him constantly and I’m sure that has reduced the number of votes he should have been getting from fans. I’m sure he’s on the list based on the votes of the football professionals who recognised how well he was playing. Flick has been over hyped, imo, and Johnson has been very much under hyped, and the fact that he made the all-star team anyway should tell you just how well the football coaches and reporters know he’s been playing. On Congi, however, I must admit that I don’t know what they saw in his season. It may be that DeAngelis’s showboating swung a few votes, and it may be that they feel Congi had some longer kicks and kicked in more difficult conditions, but at first look I don’t really understand why they picked Congi over DeAngelis.
Why they picked Johnson, however, is very clear to me. He played at an all-star level for most of the season and only had a few bad plays.
Congi?
I agree. I have NO idea how Congi beat out Sandro. Congi is in the upper 60s in FG %? DeAngelis is in the upper 80s?
Sandro was robbed of one here....
Flick
I think Flick is a good choice - he's been getting the job done all year and leads all receivers in touchdowns. Statistically speaking there is very little to choose between Flick and Copeland. Copeland has a few more yards (1036 vs. 1018), Flick has one more touchdown (10 vs. 9). Flick played one less game. Personally I would question the choices of Lewis and Simon before I would question Flick. With only 5 and 4 touchdowns respectively and comparable total yardage (1101 and 1082 respectively) to Flick and Copeland. Going a little further down the yardage list Kamau Peterson, Andy Fantuz, Paris Jackson, and Ken-Yon Rambo all had good years too. And if Matt Dominguez and Jason Tucker hadn't been injured they would have been right near the top of the list too. It seems like there's a lot of parity in the West at that position.
I would question the choice of Congi at kicker.
It’s certainly debateable.
It’s certainly debateable. There were a lot of receivers in about the same range yardage wise. By my count 9 western conference receivers currently have between 900 and 1100 yards. Before Matt got injured Flick wasn’t on pace for even 900 yards though, and although he did catch a lot of TD passes he also juggled a pass that was right to him in the endzone and turned it into an interception. BC and Calgary have much deeper receiving corps than we do too, so they spread the ball around more. It’s close and certainly debatable, but I would have picked Copeland ahead of him.
As you mentioned, with Tucker and Matt having significant injury issues two players who would have been almost certain all-stars were not in the running this year, and that threw things wide open for large group of other players.