Sep
Bryant, Franklin dealt to Stamps
Courtesy Winnipeg Free Press:
It was a surreal scene, watching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — already in a daze following Sunday’s thrashing by the Montreal Alouettes — scrambling to find Romby Bryant and tell him he’d been traded to the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders.
The Stamps, desperate to replenish their receiving corps after losing Ryan Thelwell to an Achilles injury in Friday’s loss to Hamilton and already without Ken-Yon Rambo, have landed both Bryant and Arjei Franklin — scheduled to come off the nine-game injured list this week — from the Bombers in exchange for receivers Titus Ryan and Jabari Arthur and defensive end Odell Willis.
Calgary also gets a third-round pick in next year’s Canadian Draft and the rights to a negotiation-list player while the Bombers landed two draft picks in 2010, a fourth- and sixth-rounder.
“Nothing we are doing is acting out of haste or a knee-jerk reaction to these things,” said Bombers director of player personnel John Murphy. “We have Toronto at home next week and B.C. coming to us. Like it or not, in this season and how everybody has played except Montreal, it’s the first team to a two-game winning streak down the stretch that is going to pull out that last spot.
“Both of those guys played hard for us. On the other side, I like what we’re getting in return.”
Bryant has struggled all season, but was particularly bad Sunday with two catches for 18 yards while being out-fought for one pass — intercepted by the Als.
In Ryan (6-0, 190, Concordia College-Selma), the Bombers get a 25-year-old rookie who has seven catches for 111 yards and one TD in spot duty, but has also returned 37 kickoffs for 894 yards — including a 104-yard TD.
Arthur (6-4, 225, Akron), 27, has spent all this year on the injured list, but is scheduled to return this week.
Willis (6-2, 265, West Georgia), 24, has 12 tackles and six sacks this year, his first in the CFL.
