The CFL season kicks off on Thursday night in Winnipeg, with Ricky Ray and the Argos taking on the Bombers. As moderately successful as I was in making picks last year (43-29), I wanted to mix things up and make my weekly picks more interesting. So this year I’ll be polling different players each week and stacking my choices up against theirs collectively.
Up first is Esks QB Mike Reilly.
I always find Week 1 picks the toughest of the lot to make. Unless you have a mole stationed in each CFL market to feed you info through training camp, you’re going with your gut on these things. My strategy this week is to go with experience. Teams with minimal turnover, or at least key positions that remain intact, in my mind should have the edge on opening weekend. I asked Reilly about that.
“The first week picks are always the hardest, I think because you don’t really know what a team’s identity is that early in the season,” he said. “From my experience in this league, we always broke the season up into thirds, six games at a time.
“The first six games teams are trying to figure out their identity a bit. The middle six you have some injuries creeping in and things like that and the last six, teams are trying to make a push for playoffs. It really is a tale of three different seasons and the first game is always the hardest to pick, but I think that when you’re looking at them, you expect the teams that have played together longer to have the advantage early in the season, but that changes as time goes along.”
That said, here’s how Reilly sees Week 1 breaking down. Can you guess how he’ll go with the third game on the slate this week?
Toronto vs. Winnipeg
“You know, I can’t ever bet against Ricky Ray. Again, the disclaimer is that I think these games could go either way because you don’t really know, but Ricky’s coming off of a great season and Winnipeg, I haven’t really got to see them play much, with Drew (Willy) and the new offence. I know Drew is a new quarterback. Nick Moore is over there, and Korey Banks, they have some weapons for sure. But I can’t vote against Ricky.”
Montreal vs. Calgary
“Montreal and Calgary is going to be a tough one because again, Montreal is a bit of an unknown to me, with Troy Smith playing quarterback. He finished the season strong and Ocho Cinco, or Chad Johnson, or whatever he’s calling himself up here will be interesting to see. But they don’t have Shea Emry anymore, so it’ll be interesting to see what they’ve got going on. I’ve got to go with Calgary. We’ve played against them a lot more than we have against Montreal and I know that they’re tough and their defence is solid.”
B.C. vs. Edmonton
This one is better in dialogue form.
Reilly: Yeah, that’s Edmonton for sure. I think they’ve got a really good-looking quarterback.
Me: That makes a difference, right?
Reilly: For sure. I definitely would vote myself better looking than Kevin (Glenn) or Travis (Lulay).
Me: I think that’s why Travis isn’t playing this week. He probably felt intimidated.
Reilly: I think so too. That makes sense.
Hamilton vs. Saskatchewan
“That’s a tough one. That’s a Grey Cup rematch right there, but both teams look quite a bit different. Hamilton’s got Zach (Collaros) over there and Cary Koch and they’re going to be quite a bit different than last year but they’re going to be really good. I do think Hamilton’s going to have a strong season but Saskatchewan, you can’t bet against the Grey Cup champs until they give you a reason to do so.”
O’Leary’s picks
Toronto over Winnipeg, Calgary over Montreal, B.C. over Edmonton and Saskatchewan over Hamilton.
Esks-Lions was the toughest one for me to pick. Kevin Glenn should prove his worth to the Lions as long as Lulay is out and B.C. still has a strong defence. The Esks are still coming together and it might take a week or two for them to really start to gel in-game. Again, experience factors into that pick for me and while the Lions aren’t at their best out of the gate, Glenn knows how to get it done and B.C.’s D should be able to keep them in it if the offence starts out slow. I wouldn’t be completely shocked if the Esks took this one, but BC Place has been a tough place to win at for the Esks. Note my humming and hawing in presenting this choice as evidence of how I spent the day deliberating it. We’ll see how it pans out.
