Thursday, April 14, 2011

Arland Bruce Contract Extension Analysis

Good news that Arland Bruce (the third iteration) signed a contract extension with the Ticats, as a Bruce retirement would have deleterious effects on the Cats upcoming season. Bruce's numbers the past two seasons have been excellent, 86 catches for 1303 yards and 8 TDs last year for Hamilton, and 88 catches for 1242 yards and 10 TDs between the Ticats and the Argos in 2009.

Clearly Bruce and import Dave Stala (1015 yards) are the main targets for Kevin Glenn this year, with Marquay McDaniel (994 yards) and Maurice Mann (787 yards) trying to usurp them. After those four, there's a considerable dropoff in talent. Can non-import Matt Carter (137 yards) emerge after the departure of Chris Bauman to the Eskimos as a viable fifth receiver? Possible, but I wouldn't bet on more than 500 yards max from him this year. Hopefully someone else emerges from the various import wide receivers invited to camp this year. Having a good fifth and sixth option receiver option, especially with the high probability of one of the receivers being injured at some point in the season is required if the Cats are going to beat out the Alouettes in 2011.

2 comments:

M@ said...

Carter is a decent option for 5th receiver, but very easy to bump down to 6th or lower if anyone better comes along.

One issue that I have with Glenn is that receivers seem to get on his shit list and then they never recover. Baumann was on this list last year (and Mann was was too, for the first part of last season). You're limiting your effectiveness and gifting the secondary with opportunities for double coverage.

I don't think Carter would be too bad if he had a few more balls thrown his way. And I think we'd still have Baumann on the Cats if Glenn had given him a fair shake.

Jorge said...

We'll see who emerges from training camp. Hopefully it won't be the usual does well for part of the season then starts dropping the football at critical times guy the Cats always seem to get.