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BC Lions #CFLDraft Live Blog

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Welcome to our live blog of the 2017 CFL Draft. We will be covering some of the social stuff leading up to the draft itself as well as updating all of the BC Lions picks as they happen. (The love portion of the blog will end after the compkletion of the second round with updates later).

Pre-Draft Banter

Farhan Lalji of TSN reports a trade may be in the works between the BC Lions and the Montreal Alouettes for the 7th overall pick:

The obligatory Simpsons reference on #CFLDraft Day:

The BC Lions have their Draft Central page set up here.

3DownNation’s Justin Dunk feels CFL scouts may have a different opinion of Danny Vandervoort than the media does:

Farhan Lalji reports the Riders like either linebacker Cameron Judge or offensive lineman Dariusz Bladek with the 2nd overall pick:

The BC Lions War Room is ready to go. What will they do with their two first-round picks?

Thirty minutes to the draft and all is quiet. Too quiet we say…so more Simpsons:

Draft Partaaaay at the BC Lions practice facility in Surrey (Photo: Neill Wotherspoon)

Yeah…this. Vancouver too.

The Draft Begins

First Round

1. Winnipeg Blue Bombers – DL Faith Ekakitie – University of Iowa
2. Saskatchewan Roughriders – LB Cameron Judge – UCLA
3. BC Lions – WR Danny Vandervoort – McMaster


4. Hamilton Tiger-Cats – DL Conner McGough – University of Calgary
5. Edmonton Eskimos – WR Nate Behar – Carelton
6. Calgary Stampeders – (Via Winnipeg for 8th and 34th picks) – DL Randy Colling – Gannon University
3. BC Lions – DL Junior Luke – University of Montreal


Yeah, I said it on May 4th…#Guru


8. Winnipeg Blue Bombers – OL Geoff Dray – University of Manitoba
9. Ottawa Redblacks – OL Evan Johnson – University of Saskatchewan

Danny Vandervoort and friends celebrate his selection by the Lions:

Wally liked Junior and was pleased he was there at 7:

Second Round

10. Toronto Argonauts – OL Mason Woods – University of Idaho
11. Saskatchewan Roughriders – OL Dariusz Bladek – Bethune-Cookman University
12. Montreal Alouettes – DL Fabion Foote – McMaster University
13. Hamilton Tiger-Cats – OL Braden Schram – University of Calgary
14. Edmonton Eskimos – OL Jean-Simon Roy – University of Laval
15. Winnipeg Blue Bombers – OL Qadr Spooner – McGill University
16. BC Lions – OL Jeremy Zver – University of Regina


17. Calgary Stampeders – WR Julan Lunch – University of Saskatchewan
18. Ottawa Redblacks – FB Anthony Gosselin – Sherbrooke University

Thanks for following us live through the first two rounds. We’ll update the rest of the picks later this evening. Well done Wally!

Lions Notebook: SJ, we hardly knew ya.

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Lions Notebook is a new feature here on 3DownNation, where from time to time we will bring you up to date on Lions news and some good stuff from CFL social media. If you would like your tweets to possibly appear here use the hashtag #LionsNB.

SJ Haidara, we hardly knew ya.

CEWnwtSUIAABhOkThe Lions announced Tuesday that they had traded national receiver SJ Haidara to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for their 5th round pick (43rd overall) in this year’s draft. The Lions also hold the 41st pick in that round and have eight picks in the seven round draft.

Haidara is a player you wanted to see more of. He showed flashes of promise in a limited role during his rookie season, but last year was surpassed by Kito Poblah on the roster, relegating him to mainly special teams work. Poblah didn’t have outstanding numbers (15 catches, 182 yards, 1 TD) and it would have been nice to see SJ get more of a chance to grow as a player and see more of his skill set.

It will be interesting to see what Wally Buono has in mind for the pick. Whether he chooses to keep it and harvest as much as he can from the draft, or perhaps use it as an attempt to move up to get the player he really wants.

Here is some more on the deal from our own Drew Edwards.

Off to school

The Lions announced that their June 19th preseason game versus Edmonton will be held at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium. The club is hoping they can expand the 3500 seat venue to between 8,000 and 10,000 by including standing room tickets.

The event is being co-hosted by the Lions and UBC who are entering their first season with renowned CIS coach Blake Nill at the helm, as well as former Penn State QB Michael O’Connor.

BC Lions season ticket holders will have first dibs on tickets for the event, but obviously not all of them will be able to attend. Because of that the Lions have provided a nice package, including free tickets to one of three regular season games and BC Place food credits. There will be no extra cost for the preseason game ticket. Standing room tickets will be priced around $25.00 for the event.

Speaking of O’Connor, here is a good piece by Lowell Ullrich outlining his participation in a BC Lions evaluation camp. He will also be attending the main Lions camp in Kamloops.

Pryor released by Chiefs

Quarterback Terrelle Pryor was released by the Kansas City Chiefs and his CFL rights belong to the Lions. Pryor may be running out of stops in the NFL, so it will be interesting to see how that situation develops. With the Lions already undergoing auditions for the eventual successor to Travis Lulay, Pryor would be an interesting name to add to the mix, if only for his name.

CFL Social

It was a great lanch for 3DownNation.com with kudos coming from all over Twitter on our first day, including this one from one my favourite pawdcast guests to date:

Andy Fantuz brought a world record to the CFL when he completed 50 one handed catches in 1 minute with a little help from some fellow players:

A couple of groups are showing their dedication by organizing fan bus trips for road games. The REDBLACKS Booster club has sold out their bus trip to Montreal, while Section O in Edmonton have put together a trip to Fort McMurray:

There are some incredible CFL edits out there on Twitter, here are a couple we really like for obvious reasons. Give these guys a follow:

Manny Arceneaux Edit:

Adam Bighill Edit:

BC Lions Social wins big on first day of #CFLFA14

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The BC Lions may not have come out winners when it came to getting the players they coveted on day one of CFL free agency, but they certainly came out the winners when it came to engaging their fans on Twitter and Facebook. Free agency had barely begun when the @BCLions tweeted this:

That’s the first time I’ve seen a professional sports team let their followers know what the they were working on during what is traditionally a top-secret operation for teams. It also has the interesting dynamic of letting the other teams know who they were after right off the bat. Fans and traditional media both got a kick out of the tweet:

Quickly though the players on that list started to disappear, one by one. The Lions further teased their fans by tweeting a picture of their own free agent, Keron Williams working out at the team’s facility in Surrey:

That caused speculation an announcement was pending on Williams re-signing with the Lions. It of course never came…TEASES!

And when they lost Nick Moore to Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Lions broke up the disappointment for their fans with this little gem to remind Moore to buy some protection with his fat new contract:

And for good measure retweeted a Manitoba weather report:

Ahh, those Lions social media peeps are gold Jerry, GOLD!

And when the day was done there an interview with the big man, Wally Buono, who explained the club’s use of Social Media and how the day unfolded for BC.

I’ve been on Twitter as long as the Lions have. In fact before the league or the team ever had an account. From day one the Lions have always been the most engaging team on Twitter and continually come up with ways to engage their fans.

They may not signed any of the players they had on their list this morning, but when it came to social, they were clearly the winners of the day.

Now go be social, and share this blog would ya?

 

The BCLionsDen.ca Pawdcast – Episode 13

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In Episode 13 Brian and Mojo recap the BC Lions 37-29 loss to the Ticats and are joined by CJAD 800 Alouettes sideline reporter Joey Alfieri to discuss the Lions and Alouettes. We take a trip around the league to discuss the CFL week that was, and answer your social media questions.

To stay up to date with our podcasts, blogs and other Lions news, follow us on Twitter @BCLionsDen

Please leave us a comment on the site and let us know how we’re doing. You can also leave us a ranking and a review on iTunes, we would really appreciate it!

Listen:

Listen and Subscribe on iTunes


From The Stands: Lions 27 Bombers 20

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It was the BC Day holiday and it was BC’s day on the field as they ground out a tough 27-20 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Here’s how I saw it, from the stands.

Tired Team?

I wouldn’t be surprised if to a man the players would say the bye week is coming at the perfect time. After travelling to Toronto and back, having a short week in which they only had two practices, and playing their second game in less than a week, the Lions had to scratch and claw their way to a win over the Bombers. It was a critical win, as the Lions couldn’t afford to fall another game behind the leaders in the West with another loss to an East Division team.

Offence

The Lions certainly came out with a purpose on the opening kickoff after the hit of the game by Solomon Elimimian gave them an early turnover and great field position to work with. But the Lions couldn’t advance the ball and settled for Paul McCallum field goal. In fact it took the Lions until the second quarter to solve their red zone woes when Travis Lulay found Shawn Gore in the end zone after a nice fake on the end around. Elimimian made his presence felt again picking off a deflected Justin Goltz pass and two plays later Lulay zipped a ball into Korey Williams who made a great catch for his first CFL TD.

Overall though the offence was average which wasn’t helped with the fact that the Bombers defence held Andrew Harris in check for most of the night. I thought the offensive line did a fairly decent job protecting Lulay for most of the night with Dean Valli stepping in for the injured Kirby Fabien.

There is lots of work to be done to get the unit firing on all cylinders.

Defence

It was the defence that should get most of the credit for the win. Turnovers had the Bombers in the game and  Goltz looked decent in spurts. Chad Simpson and the Bombers offensive line had some success but the defence didn’t break often. After 16 points on the first half the Lions used good field position and their defence to hold the Bombers to four points in the second half.

Still, there should be more concerns about the lack of pressure from the Lions defensive line as the Lions head into the bye week. Lack of pressure has been a big reason why in back to back weeks young QBs have had some success against the Lions defence, although against the Bombers it had less of an impact. But the Lions didn’t give up the big play all night, and overall, it was a strong performance.

Anyone else know what Dante Marsh did to draw an unnecessary roughness penalty in the second quarter on the second Bombers touchdown? Just wondering, because I didn’t see it at the time, and the replays sure didn’t show anything.

Special Teams

We already talked about Elimimian’s big hit on special teams to start the game and the Lions did a good job of holding to the Bombers to modest returns on the night. Paul McCallum’s coffin corner punt was a thing of beauty and led to the Bombers giving up a key safety, but the veteran did miss two field goals from 45 yards leaving this blogger to wonder why they don’t send in Hugh O’Neill for anything over 40 yards. McCallum’s shank on the late punt that gave the Bombers a hope looked to be an early snap that he wasn’t expecting.

It should be interesting to see how the kicking game evolves as the season progresses, because 45 yarders are going to be needed down the stretch.

Twitter Fodder

 Steve @TheSpecialist4: @ryan_4real21 Congrats on 150 consecutive games. All played with class, style and the right amount of flying around.

Indeed, all with the Lions as well.

Jamie Cartmell @SweetJimmyC: Dedicated to the end. Gonna miss ya @JacqBlack #BCLions #CFL pic.twitter.com/XY278wdaUe –

Lions communications director Jamie Cartmell on the departure of assistant  Jacqueline Blackwell, who worked her last game last night after eight seasons. She has been a great friend to me as a blogger, and I wish her all the best in her new endeavours. She’s been a big part of building the Lions social media brand.

Jordan Ortillan @jortillan: I love this stadium. A shame there aren’t more people in it. #BCPlace #BCLions #CFL #football

A shame indeed, but I was surprised there were as many as there were. One of the most popular long weekends of the year for folks to get away, so just fewer than 27,000 was decent. I’m still confident crowds will approach 30,000 as we head towards Labour Day and play key Western Division opponents.

Enjoy the bye week everyone. Next up is a big Western Division match against the Calgary Stampeders, where we will get a real gauge of just how the Lions stack up against the West.

As always, we would love your comments on the game, either here or on Twitter @BCLionsDen.

 

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