Ticat Tackle Brian Simmons to Redskins

According to this article, Simmons has worked out for the Redskins, amongst other teams. Probably not good for the Cats, although as an import he would be easier to replace. I doubt the Cats would replace him with a Canadian.

Riders Hire George Cortez as Offensive Co-ordinator

Just saw on Twitter that the Riders just hired former Ticat head coach George Cortez as their offensive co-ordinator. Does this mean the Cats don't have to pay his contract this year, or maybe only the difference from the head coach salary and the co-ordinator salary. Maybe good for the Caretaker's pocketbook.

Cats Release Quinton Porter

Just saw on Twitter that the Cats have released Quinton Porter. Clearly the Cats lost confidence in him and he was probably going to be paid higher on the wage scale for a backup. Plus he barely played last year, with quarterback Henry Burris taking almost all the snaps en route to a last place 6 and 10 record.

Going forward, Burris is certainly not young, although not particularly injury prone either. The Cats may be OK this year, but in 2014 and the return to Ivor Wynne (or whatever it is called) things could be more problematic if the Cats haven't identified another quarterback that can start and not suck.

I'll probably say more about Porter in another post, but the now departed George Cortez' decision to almost never play Porter meant the Cats evaluation of him would not be ideal.

Where will Porter end up? Winnipeg could be a possibility, considering how often Buck Pierce is injured.

Going for Two in the CFL. How Likely?

Slate has an article about when teams in the NFL should go for a two point convert. From the article, "NFL teams have a 47.9 percent success rate on two-point conversions." What's the CFL success rate when going for two? Higher or lower than the NFL? I'm inclined to say higher, although I don't have a lot of evidence. Maybe the passing completion percentage is higher in the CFL. Certainly the end zones are way larger so that has to help.

What if it turns out that the percentage is higher than 50%? Should teams always go for two? What if your team has a good offense and the other team has a bad defence? Should that affect the choice? I doubt CFL coaches would always go for two, but something to think about.

Cats Hire Orlando Steinauer as New Defensive Co-Ordinator

Interesting pick. Spent the last three years as the Argos defensive backs coach and the Argos won the Grey Cup, a lot of that done with a good defence. Steinauer was a former Cats player, which makes for a good story. In 2012, Hamilton's defence sucked and a lot of that was secondary issues (although the front four was in no way good either).

I have no major problems with this choice. Hamilton's talent on defence wasn't great, but certainly schemes were a part of the bad performance. One could argue the Cats should have gone with a known commodity like former defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall, but I'm cautiously optimistic. The Cats were last year, so it shouldn't be hard to do better in Guelph in 2013. Also I'm glad the pick is done relatively early rather than letting it drag on closer to the start of the season.

Fourth Down Should You Go For It NFL Web App

I saw a post on Hacker News about a big tranche of NFL play data being released on the web. Interesting. However in the comments I saw a link to a web app with that shows whether your NFL team should go for it on fourth down, given your yards required for a first down and the yard line you are on.

I would love to make one for the CFL for going on third down. Obviously there's some differences for the CFL. Lining up one yard off the ball for defences means one yard or less attempts are a lot easier in the CFL. Kicking field goals with posts at the front of the end zone rather than the end adjusts the possibility of getting points from field goals. Plus a lot of other factors.

For the Ticats of 2012, with a great offence and a terrible defence, I wonder if the Cats should have went more on third down. They certainly should have thrown the challenge flag more often.