Sep
Printers not ready to play
Courtesy Montreal Gazette:
Wally Buono is not ready to shake things up just yet.
The B.C. Lions head coach and general manager will likely give Buck Pierce the start Friday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, not newly acquired pivot Casey Printers.
“That would be exciting, wouldn’t it?” Buono said, chuckling at the suggestion that Printers should get the starting call next game. “I don’t believe in 21/2 days of work (51/2 if you count this week’s preparation) that Casey’s ready. He wasn’t brought in to save this team.
“Right now, he’s still trying to learn the offence,” Buono added. “It would not be fair to Casey to put him in a situation where he really doesn’t have much chance to succeed. That’s probably what happened to him in his past. And it was a tremendous detriment to his team. We’re not in the business of doing that. It’s not fair to him, it’s not fair to the players, it’s not even fair to the fans.”
The Lions added Printers for insurance after Jarious Jackson was injured and with Pierce dealing with nagging hurts.
In July, after the Lions were humiliated in a 48-10 home loss to the Calgary Stampeders, Lions owner David Braley suggested the team could bring in Printers as a quick fix, then backtracked on that thought in an interview with Team 1040 radio.
“That would be a terrible mistake at this point,” Braley told the radio station. “Casey Printers selling tickets? He did that very well in Hamilton, I guess, for no games. He didn’t perform very well. I don’t think he has a big enough upside, quite frankly.”
Buono, however, said that the Lions owner has faith in his decisions and Braley’s personal opinions aren’t necessarily reflective of the football operations department.
“If there were no injuries to the quarterbacks, we probably wouldn’t have made a change (signing Printers), period,” Buono said. “It made us do something we had to do — protect ourselves. For some reason, we seem to be the only team that gets nicked up (at quarterback). Right now, I don’t know if there’s any other team (with two ailing QBs).”
Buono implied he was satisfied with Pierce’s performance in Friday’s 27-18 loss to Calgary. Despite painfully sore ribs, Pierce threw for 230 yards and a touchdown, although one throw ended up in the hands of Stampeders defender Keon Raymond at a key juncture. Overall, Pierce showed “progress,” Buono said. “He moved well and he had some good throws.”
Those don’t sound like the words of a coach contemplating a change. If fact, if anybody displaces Pierce as the Lions starter, it could be Jackson, Buono suggested. Jackson has missed the past two games with a bruised or slightly torn supraspinatus tendon (one of four rotator cuff tendons that enclose the shoulder), although he did accompany the team to Calgary in an advisory role.
Jackson was supposed to be out from three to five weeks, but Buono suggested his progress is ahead of schedule.
“Who will start (against Saskatchewan)?” Buono said. “I don’t know. It all depends on Jarious’s status. He could be much improved, or he may need another week.”
