Halford & Brough in the Morning - BC Lions Co-GM & DFO Neil McEvoy On Rourke's Return

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with NHL.com Blues reporter Lou Korac (4:30) on yesterday's busy offer sheet day for St. Louis, plus the boys are joined by BC Lions Co-GM and Director of Football Operations Neil McEvoy (24:29) to discuss the return of Nathan Rourke. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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A chance for all to belong while playing Canada's favorite game together. Featuring divisions for girls, boys, women, and men of all ages and experience levels. Play On comes to Surrey August 17th and 18th. For details, visit www.playon.ca. Lou Korak from NHL.com covering the St. Louis Blues

will join us momentarily here. We'll get Lou on the line. Weigh in on the dual offer sheets. They signed Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, both of the Edmonton Oilers, two offer sheets yesterday and now Edmonton with seven days to decide what they're going to do, match or let the players go to St. Louis.

And I got to say, we'll talk more about the Edmonton side of things here as well. Later on, Jack Michaels will join the show. You and I were obviously reacting on air yesterday and talking about it. The more I think about it, the more I think that they are going to match the Philip Roberg one because you got to look at it this way. They're trying, like, it's not about how efficient of a contract is it, right?

It's not about even what can we do maybe with the second round pick down the line so much. It's about how do you give yourself the best chance to win the Stanley cup this year? And I don't know if even next year enters into the equation that much. Like, I think it is this year. The focus is so paramount for them in this on this upcoming

season and what they can do to win the stanley cup and at a certain point they're probably going to ask themselves okay are we better with philip roberg and trading cody cc attaching an asset to get rid of cody cc or are we better with cody cc and the second round pick we got from philip roberg i kind of think they might say we're better with Philip Broberg as opposed to Cody Ceci. My thing with that is, especially when you look at the contract, right? Is Broberg worth 4.58? But that's not the question, though, right? To me, it is because you can go and get a player that's cheaper that maybe has a similar impact to Broberg.

Because me, personally, I'm still not sold on Philip Broberg being a top four guy. That's fair. And I'm not saying you want to pencil him into your top four. You're going to be counting him to play 20 minutes a game. But I guess the question is, okay, can you use that second round pick to go with your salary cap situation, right, and go get somebody who's going to be cheaper but better than Philip Broberg? Like that's a lot easier said than done.

It's hard to do, but there are also guys like Nikita Zdorov who came up last year. There are guys who shake free during the season, and that's a bet to make. Maybe that's not a bet they're comfortable making, and so the safer option is to bring back Broberg. I just look at it, and I don't think I'd rather have the picks, but that being said, I just don't know if it's the most efficient use of cap space for the Oilers. For more on this story, as mentioned, he covers the Blues for NHL.com. He joins us now.

He is Lou Korak. Lou, thank you very much for doing this today. How are you? Good. How are you guys? We're doing very well. We're fired up about double offer sheets to cover here in the middle of August in the NHL. It was very, very exciting when it dropped on our show yesterday. What's the reception been in St. Louis and from what you've seen from Blues fans to this idea? me uh i don't think anybody saw it coming um but then again you know i remember there was a conversation that uh we had with uh doug armstrong back in june this was right before the draft and

he had talked a little bit about uh just about going about what they could possibly and potentially do during the summer and i and he had brought up the fact of, you know, there's, there's always the potential of offer sheets and, uh, you know, nobody really expects it because I guess, um, as there's always kind of that gentleman's agreement, I guess, and it's been around for so long that, you know, Hey, you know, you don't touch my RFAs, I won't touch yours, yada, yada, you know, and, but I'll tell you what, um, I think doug armstrong even mentioned this that's uh not just not just from his perspective but uh around the league that uh it seems like the gms are becoming you know a little bit more receptive that uh you know the fact that you know

offer sheets are there that it's it's more of a possibility and he kind of left he kind of left when we were talking about it, he kind of left it open-ended, and I didn't think much about it then, but now it makes sense now because he did mention that if the opportunity was there and if there was something that he felt like could help this team, that it's something that he was going to be open to. And now we know why.

Because, you know, you've got a couple players here right in that age range that he has consistently talked about that those are the kinds of players that he would like to acquire early to mid-20s guys that maybe haven't reached their full potential yet or just scratching the surface and you've got two guys here that fall right into that range. As far as Blues fans, I think that the majority of the reception has been great. They feel like, you know, if this is something that they could pull off, that, you know, they're giving all the credit to Doug Armstrong for doing this. And even if it ruffles some feathers on the other side, Hey, it's all part of business. And the idea is to make your club better, not, not necessarily to make somebody else better. And I think, you know,

they feel like the boldness is something that they appreciate. And it's, it's, it's a chance for a GM to make his hockey club better. And that's how it's being received here. And for the most part, it's been a lot of positive feedback coming back the other way. Now we just wait and see. Edmonton's got a week to make a decision here, and we wait. And it's going to force them to be creative, let's put it that way,

with a team that's literally pressed up against the cap, maybe even over it right now a little bit, and we'll see what they're able to do. Yeah, and that point about the boldness of the move, Lou, from Doug Armstrong is, I think, really fascinating because it's rare enough to see one offer sheet, right, let alone two signed at the same time for players from the same team in the Edmonton Oilers.

What does the move tell you about Doug Armstrong's mentality right now as the GM and kind of where he sees his team and what he's trying to accomplish with the Blues in the near term? Well, just business as usual as far as they're concerned. They're trying to stay competitive while retooling this roster and you know there's a there's been a perception at times hey this team hasn't made the playoffs in the last two years from a fan perspective uh it's gotten to a point at times hey strip down whatever you can and rebuild it. And that's just not where the Blues are.

They continue to maintain. They don't want to go in that route. You know, you see a team like Chicago, hey, they've readily admitted, we're rebuilding. But that's not where the Blues are right now. They want to try to stay competitive while they retool the roster with some younger players. And, again, this is two examples here, two 23-year-olds or one soon-to-be 23-year-old,

and they feel like these are two guys that could fit into the fabric of what they want to do, especially a guy like Philip Broberg. I mean, you're talking about a player that on this roster, I feel like could potentially be a top four defenseman, no doubt about it. Somebody that will get the opportunity to get more playing time, will get the opportunity to get more minutes right off the bat. And that's what they're looking at.

That's the way they see it. And it was an opportunity for them to pounce on something. I mean, they had the cap space. That's another important thing here. I mean, in the past year, the Blues have not been a team that's had cap space at their disposal. Well, they were able to do that. They had cap space to begin with and created some more when they made that trade for Kevin Hayes. And this is the situation that they're in. And again, we sit and we wait. And if they're able to get the two players, they're going to be very happy with it.

What do you think of the retooling, rebuilding on the fly situation strategy in St. Louis? Because when I look at it, there's like a few guys that are in their prime age that seem ready to compete, like Robert Thomas, Jordan Cairo. You can throw out Pavel Buchnevich in there too. I know they just extended him.

What's the outlook for this team? How many pieces, I guess, are they away from kind of taking that next step? And how aggressive does Doug Armstrong still need to be to get them to where they want to be? It's a tough question to answer right now because this is a team last year that really was knocking on they were knocking on a playoff door they wound up obviously missing out by seven points so you're not that far away now did they go out well other than probably the big move that they made in the offseason was resigning Bucinavich so obviously the commitment is there to want to keep that player in the mix and in the fold but they really didn't go out and make any splash moves, so to speak.

I mean, this, you know, if you're able to get these guys signed through offer sheets, yeah, you can consider this a little bit splashy, but, you know, you're talking about acquiring Matthew Joseph. You're talking about bringing in Erotic Fox. You're talking about bringing in a P.O. Joseph. You're talking about bringing in Erotic Fox. You're talking about bringing in a P.O. Joseph. These are guys that you're probably going to look at as being pieces that are going to fit in to the bottom half of your lineup, not somebody that you're going to throw into your top six or be one of your top two, top three, top four defensemen. So they plugged some holes where they felt like they may have some holes here,

and they're hoping by doing that it's going to at least give them a chance to be competitive. And if they're in it come trade deadline time, well, now you've got, again, still some flexibility where Doug Armstrong, if he sees the writing on the wall that this team has got a chance to make the playoffs, well, now he's going to go out later on in the year and try to help make this team better. But it's one of those wait and see situations. And he's even mentioned that he's going to wait. If this team gives him every indication that they're going to be in it,

he's going to go out and he's going to try to help make them better and try to push them over the top. But that's one of those situations where he's going to allow the players to dictate that as as they move into the season and see how things play out you know i know one of the complicating factors for the blues has been the situation on the blue line where they you know they have a lot of salary and term committed to guys uh over 30 with no trade clauses as well, especially if they do get Philip Broberg and you're adding another four and a half million dollar salary there. Would that make it even more urgent for them to try to figure out to at least move one of those contracts?

Right. We're talking, you know, Justin Falk, Torrey Krug, Nick Letty. I think Pareko probably a bit of a different situation. But what's the what's the path forward for the blue line specifically for the Blues? Well, I think they understand that, you know, with the structure of some of those contracts, that they at least are going to have to go through probably one more year of keeping the group as is together because, you know, you're talking about guys that have the full no-trade flexibility, and they're the ones that are, you know, you saw the situation with Torrey Krug last summer.

You know, he would not waive his no-trade clause, and that's his right, and all the other players are in the same situation. Now, moving forward into the next offseason, well, now, you know, now you have some flexibility where if you feel like you need to move a contract or move two contracts, you have that ability to do that. So as far as Torrey Krug is concerned, I don't, you know, you guys saw the situation a couple of weeks ago where he may not even be able to play this season. So that's another thing, that's another thing that this team has to monitor. That's why they, you know, at the time I wondered, you know,

what was the reasoning behind bringing in a Ryan Suter? Well, now we understand why. And if Torrey Crew cannot play, well, now you've got another guy there that can jump into your top four, play those kinds of minutes, and you're probably not going to miss too much of a beat there. But you're going to be playing Colton Pareko, you're going to be playing Nick Letty, and they're going to be hoping, let's face it, Justin Falk, yes, he had some injuries last year, but it was a bit of a down year for him, as opposed to two seasons ago where he was really,

really good. So you're going to have to hope that you're going to be able to ride these horses once again and see where they take you. Because right now, they just don't have that flexibility to move these guys unless somebody is willing to wave that no-tray clause. And to this point, nobody's been willing to do that. One guy that I found really interesting in his draft year that almost fell to the Canucks but went to the Blues was Dalibor Dvorsky and what is what has his progression kind of looked like is he expected to make this team that's the the team this year or expected to at least have a good chance out of training camp to to spend some time in the NHL they're going to give him every opportunity to make this team this year I think they were very very pleased with his year at Sudbury last year. Once he came over from Sweden, he took off right from the get-go.

And if he makes the squad out of training camp this year, it's going to throw this forward group quite a wrench into it because somebody that they were probably expecting or felt like that was going to make this team is probably not going to be here. And he is somebody that could really, really push somebody, especially in a top six role. If he comes out and shines the way they feel like he can, they're not going to waste any time giving him an opportunity. And they're not going to bring him in here to play a third-line role, a fourth-line role.

That's just not who he is, and that's not who they view him to be. So that's one of the storylines for this Blues hockey team to keep an eye on moving forward. And Dvorsky was here during development camp in in early June or early July and he understands that he understands it's all on him now he's even admitted as such that the team is willing to give him that chance and you can see that he's really looking forward to it so Lou just you before we let you go circling back to the offer sheets obviously the ball is in Edmonton's court now and they've got some time to mull this over, see if they can think of a solution, decide what to do.

But, I mean, do you have a sense of kind of what St. Louis expects to happen here? It's really interesting. From what I've seen, there's not a lot of consensus around the world of the NHL on just what to expect. But are they optimistic about getting at least one? Do they think they have a chance to get both? I mean, what do they kind of expect to happen, if you have a sense of it from this point on well something that kind of struck me uh as they feel like they're that at least one of them is going to be able to fall into their uh into their lap is the fact that they went out and they reacquired the second round pick from

pittsburgh that they traded away with kevines, because obviously, you know, if you're going to tender offer sheets to somebody, the compensation coming back has to be one of your own draft picks. So they went out and got the second round pick back from Pittsburgh, which tells me that they feel like they have a good shot at either getting one, if not both of these guys, because they had to attach another another pick which they gave up the second round pick now in 2026 along with the third round pick next year in order to reacquire one of their picks so they must feel like that uh they i don't want to say that they've got uh a noose around edmonton's neck here, but they must feel like that there's a good chance

that they can get somebody. And it's kind of clever if you guys saw the way Doug Armstrong structured this, where they paid or the compensation that they gave on average annual value to these guys falls into the category of a second-round pick and a third-round pick would be the compensation as opposed to a first and a second.

So you may be taking a little bit of a risk by doing it that way, but they must feel like whatever the AAV that they offered is going to be sufficient enough where they're going to be able to at least get one of these guys. I think the hope for them is that they can get the defenseman, Phillip Broberg, but if they can get both of these guys, it's going to be a good day for the Blues. Well, and if nothing else, all of us in hockey media working right now,

we owe Doug Armstrong a big thank you and maybe like a gift basket or something for doing this. I kind of agree there because, you know, I even dubbed it. It's like, hey, we're into the kind of the dog days of August. Thank you for kind of waking us up here a little bit. Absolutely. No doubt about it. Lou, thanks for doing this.

Really enjoyed chatting with you. Enjoy the rest of your summer. All right, guys. Take care. Have a good day. That is Lou Korak covering the Blues for NHL.com, weighing in on the Blues perspective. And, yeah, interesting that, you know,

it sounds like they would be more excited to acquire Broberg. Obviously, Broberg got the bigger number as well. So that just tells you kind of where his value is around the league as a defenseman. But also see, as I think he makes a good point, right? There was this wasn't something they just tossed off like, oh, let's see. Let's see if this works. They affirmatively went out, reacquired their second round pick to make this happen, gave up value in the process, right? So to do that, you must have a certain level of confidence or at least hope that something good

is going to come out of this process. Yeah, and when you have enough strategic, you're not going out and doing this willy-nilly. You're not like, hey, Broberg and Holloway are still out there. Let's try this, right? You had to think about it. There were steps that you had to take care of before you could even do it and so i i do wonder if there's a yeah certain level of confidence that they're going to get at least broberg done because that's the one you traded the second round pick to or reacquired your second

round pick to make happen um and that is kind of the one they need more like you look at their their roster breakdown and they're they're decent up front again i still think they could use a big piece or two maybe devorski is that for them this season or in the future but you look at the back end and it's a very well-paid back end but it's not really a confidence inspiring defensive unit and justin fall tory crew colton pareko and then you can throw in like nick leddy scott perunovich in there and they definitely need someone to hit and i don't know like i don't know broberg is that guy but at least he can he can be adequate and maybe gets more minutes in st louis to potentially have more more of an impact there.

But I don't know. They're still a weird team. They are still a weird team. And look, this isn't going to change the trajectory of their organization, right? And I think that's why a lot of teams don't follow through with the RFAs, right? It's because it's like, well, we're not getting a superstar, and we're ruffling feathers, and is it really worth it? We draft pick. But okay, so you're not changing the trajectory of your organization, but you might add talent.

Right. And so I think credit to Doug Armstrong for just recognizing this doesn't this doesn't have to be the move that sets us on course to become Stanley Cup contenders. We just have to improve the team however we can. We're in that position. tool on the fly thing you have to figure out every possible edge to be aggressive to find ways to get young talent into the organization if you're not going to be picking at the top of your draft right and look do broberg and holloway still have that upside based on where they were picked in the draft you can debate that but again it's much better than the alternative of just sitting on your hands and throwing your hand or throwing your hands up and saying well there's nothing

we can do here if you were the blues if you were were Doug Armstrong, would you be all for the retool on the fly situation? Are you like, I probably would have torn it down. I probably would be more aggressive tearing it down. I don't know what the ownership mandate is there. It feels like, hey, you got to make the playoffs. I do also like they're doing the transition thing in St. Louis where Alex Steen is going to take over as general manager. Now, I think

Doug Armstrong is going to be the president, so it's not like he's leaving the organization. He's not in true YOLO like, hey, it's not going to be my problem mode. But there is a sense of like, hey, I'm only going to be the GM for a few more years here. I got to do something. Let's be aggressive. Let's try to make something happen, which I can understand. And again, shout out to

Doug Armstrong. Okay, we're going to take a quick break here. Neil McEvoy, co-general manager of the BC Lions, will join us next to talk about the big story, Nathan Rourke, returning to the BC Lions, potentially starting for the team on Sunday. It's all very, very exciting. Get ready for the ultimate sports fan trip to Michigan from September 27th to October 1st. Experience games at the Big House, Comerica Park, and Ford Field.

Contact Neil Chark at neilc at uniglobecarefree.ca for details. Neil McEvoy, co-general manager of the BC Lions, next on Half Brough here, Sportsnet 650. It's Jamie Dodd and Josh Elliott-Wolf filling in for the guys. Halpern and Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. This hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you by Primetime

Craft Beer, meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime Craft Beer is full flavor without compromise. Add a liquor store near you or visit the brewery to see how it's made. 650 is the dumbar lumber text line the bridge street dumbar lumber in ladner has moved to progress way in tilbury's industrial park more room more product more awesome details at dumbar lumber.com of course we'll do what we learned at 8 30 so send your submissions in now hashtag wwl what you learned in the last 24 hours in sports.

But before we do that, we're really excited for our next guest. He is co-general manager of the BC Lions, and man, there's a lot to talk about with his team right now. Neil McEvoy joins the show. Neil, first of all, I mean, thanks for doing this. I'm guessing it's been a pretty busy week for you so far, so thanks for making time for us today. Yeah, no, I appreciate you having me on. It's, you know, when you're in the middle of a professional football season, there's always lots of things and things happening,

and this week was no different than, you know, obviously bringing on Nathan and, you know, trying to figure out how to get this team in the right direction to start winning some more football games. So the announcement comes out yesterday, as you mentioned, Nathan Rourke returning to the BC Lions. He's scheduled, I believe, to speak with the media later on today. Just give us a sense of how long this was in the works and how it all came together. Well, we had always remained in contact with him while he was pursuing his opportunities

down south. So, you know, he always felt that this was his, you know, family, you know, his working family. And so we always have remained in contact. And we always just said, hey, if things were, you know, going to hit a wall down there, please give us a call and let's, you know, see if we we can work something out and so he just felt that the opportunities were drying up at this point for him he didn't want to keep on just doing the circuit i knew he did have some other opportunities to uh work out with other nfl teams but he felt that at this time would have been best for himself and his family to come back to vancouver and play so once the call was made and we had some zoom calls and some discussions we

were able to come to an agreement and get him in a bc lines uniform again to you know finish off the 2024 season this is also just like him getting back into game action and stuff and maybe putting together even more of a resume in the cfl does this give him maybe a better chance in the future as well at at catching on somewhere down south? Or do you kind of expect this to be maybe more of a long-term thing? I know he's got the two years after this one on the contract. But what do you kind of expect from how long he might be in the CFL? That's a good question.

I mean, I think it's going to depend on him and depend on how things go. I do know that the NFL is a crazy world down there. I know Canadian professional football is as wacky as it is. The NFL is exactly the same way. And they don't treat players as good as you'd want. And Nathan, obviously, is a star up here. And down there, he's just the third or fourth string quarterback. And so it's going to be up to him to see what opportunities exist.

But at this point, we're just excited to have him for 2024, and we'll start discussing 2025 once this season ends. The contract details reported for Nathan Rourke, he's going to be, if not the highest paid player, one of the highest paid players in the CFL. Obviously an aggressive move to bring back a guy we know can be elite in this league back to the Lions. What does this say about, first of all, ownership, right?

They're the one making the financial commitment here. Ownership and just the team's commitment to winning. Well, first of all, yeah, this is Amar wanting to bring in a player that he feels can move the needle in this market and other markets in the country, which is a testament to him. And then the reality is Nathan is one of the best quarterbacks in three-down football before he left, and we're all excited and hoping that he can still bring that type of resume to the field, which we expect and he expects to be there

and playing at a high level. So, yeah, it's a good indication that ownership is here for the long haul. Ownership is here for trying to move this team into a different echelon and start bringing the football back to the fans because Vancouver is a good football market. You just have to win games like all the other teams in the city know that once you start tailing off, everything else starts tailing off. So winning football games is the key, and Amar knows that,

and that's one of the reasons why we were able to make this work. Well, it's been a difficult few weeks on the field, a few losses in a row here. How much of a boost do you think this will be for a team that has been struggling a bit lately? Yeah, I mean, we started the season off such on a high level. I mean, losing in Toronto but winning five in a row. And, you know, professional football, there's always up and downs

and, you know, valleys you have to wade through. You know, bringing Nathan on is going to be a boost to our team. It's going to be a boost to our fans, especially with Vernon being hurt. It's, you know, a right time for Nathan to come in to start helping us win games and that's what it's all about. When we spoke to Amar and Dwayne and Coach Campbell and feeling that bringing Nathan on would be a spark and obviously put this team back into the driver's seat

because we know we should be able to move the ball and now we just have to stop the ball being moved against us. But that's the name of the game. That's why the games are played. And we're excited about having Nathan in a BC Lions uniform this Sunday. And it was interesting to hear from Rick Campbell yesterday. And of course, he's asked, when are we going to see Nathan Rourke on the field? And he didn't say he's going to start on Sunday against Winnipeg, but he certainly

left the door open for it. How quickly do you expect Nathan to come in and kind of get fully integrated with the team and be able to go out there and be on the field taking snaps? Well, the one thing that Nathan, I do know that he is a very smart individual, and he is all in once he puts his mind to it. And so, you know, him having to go to three different offenses over the past two months was one of the reasons, I believe, his decision was made to come back up to Canada.

He just felt that he was swimming and going to a different offense every couple weeks just wasn't going to be good for his mind and his future. So our offense hasn't changed a lot. Obviously, we still have the same offensive coordinator we have the same staff we have a lot of the same players so I expect Nathan will pick up this offense really quick but that's why we have three you know full practice days starting today and we'll see where he's at at the end of the week. One thing that's come up from Lions fans

since the the Rourke signing has been hey you also have this other very very good quarterback in Vernon Adams know he's injured right now but what are what are the future plans with Adams do you still expect him to to be on this team for the rest of the season yeah that's one of the things that we spoke to Amar and Coach Campbell about is having Vernon still a part of this team he's a leader on this football team he has led this team for the last two years in in such a great way so yeah having Vernon here is going to be a asset for all of us so we're going to stick with what we got beyond this season is is there a spot for Vernon Adams or does that become a different conversation

after the remainder well we'll have to see we'll have to see where things lie at the end of the season, where Nathan's head's at, where, you know, yeah, we're going to have to sit down at the end of the season to figure out 2025 and beyond. But right now we're just going to concentrate on 2024 and see if we can win some games and bring a championship to Vancouver. How difficult is it to manage a situation where, you know, arguably you're going to have the two best quarterbacks in the league

on the BC Lions right now? I mean, we've seen quarterback controversies throughout the years, but from time to time with this team, I mean, what goes into managing that situation, you know, starting with yourself and then down through the coaching staff and the players? Well, the key is the players, you know, both Vernon and Nathan are really great individuals and they will certainly make this work. If it wasn't those two guys, I'm not sure you could make it work. So I have all the confidence in the world that this will be a good start, good, you know, go to the finish line for 2024,

and then we can figure out 2025. But, yeah, there's always issues that come up when you sign a high-priced guy like this, and that's no different than now when when you have success it always breeds some um you know issues coming down the line but as an organization we'll deal with them and uh you know like i said the key is the winning football games and that's where we start this sunday at bc place well neil i can tell you the response from our listeners that we've gotten texting and they are really really excited and

it's very understandable. Really exciting week for the BC Lions. I know people can't wait to see what it looks like when he does get out on the field. So congratulations and thanks very much for joining us. Yep, thank you very much for having me and we'll see you guys at BC Place on Sunday. Absolutely. That is Neil McEvoy, co-general

manager for the BC Lions joining us and weighing in on how everything came together. Interesting point there he made about just how difficult it is to jump around between nfl teams like that and have a new playbook at every stop right and also expected to like be good and yeah okay learn the playbook go out right now yeah do it that's tough and just the familiarity of for nathan rick being able to come back as he said same offensive coordinator not that it's exactly the same but there's going to be that familiar base, a lot of the same players.

Interesting to hear him reference that as a draw for Nathan Rourke making this decision. Yeah, and there's a level of comfortability with that from Nathan Rourke. And especially, let's look at it from a personal perspective for Rourke. You've been jumping around these NFL teams you obviously have not been able to catch and that can be frustrating especially when like hey this is your dream you want it like you want to be an NFL quarterback you want to be in the in the biggest spotlight possible and you believe in your talent and I do think there's a level of like man I, I think if he got more of a shot somewhere,

I think he could have caught on. And so when you look at it from Rourke's perspective, I do wonder if, hey, I'll go back to BC. I'll show them that I can keep doing what I was doing before I went south of the border and maybe that opens up more opportunities to get a real shot in the future. Because I honestly, like, I do think that if he got a legitimate shot somewhere,

hey, maybe he's not like a starter in the NFL. But I do think he could be back up, third string, no problem somewhere. And he just hasn't gotten that opportunity. Yeah, and it is such a ringer to go through, right, where you're constantly switching teams like that and looking for that opportunity. And as Neil McEvoy said, you said, he probably could have kept doing that. He could have stayed on that carousel a little bit.

But the opportunity to play, the opportunity to come back to the Lions ends up winning out for Nathan Rourke. And yeah, sounds like there's a very, very good chance that he will start on Sunday against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. It is Halford and Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd and Josh Elliott-Wolfe filling in. We'll continue to talk hockey coming up at 8 o'clock with Jack Michaels, Euler's play-by-play voice.

Before we do that, however, while we're talking football, when we've had the chance this week, we've been trying to do some quick divisional previews south of the border for the NFL. Of course, the NFL season's starting up in just a few weeks here. Let's do the East divisions right now. We did the North because it's your Vikings. Yeah.

And now they're broken. And now surprise, surprise. The Vikings still cursed. Yeah. We'll go to the East. You want to start AFC or NFC? Let's do AFC. So, man, like a lot of every division I feel like we've looked at has been like, oh, man, there's a lot of good teams in this division.

So, AFC East, starting with the Buffalo Bills, when you look at it just like an off-season recap, Stephon Diggs out. They lost a lot of pieces on defense too, and they didn't really replace Stephon Diggs. I believe their wide receiver one right now is Khalil Shakir, which is not a great place to be in. They did take a wide receiver, Keon is Khalil Shakir which is not a great place to be in um they did

take a wide receiver Keon Coleman at 33rd overall I think they're gonna need him to make an impact but when you look at the bills I I do feel like this is a I this is a statement year maybe for Josh Allen it feels like they saw what Patrick Mahomes did with no good wide receivers. And they're like, you know what? We've got the second best quarterback in the league. Let's try that. Let's see if he can do this. Now, they don't have Travis Kelsey at tight end.

So that's a big difference. They do. Like Dalton Kincaid is pretty good. He's not Travis Kelsey. No, he's not Travis Kelsey. He can support a passing offense like Kelsey can. But you're right. He's a good tight end. But I do think you're right.

This is just a bet on the talent of Josh Allen to be kind of superhuman week in, week out. My only concern is that sometimes with Josh Allen, what you see is he's obviously capable of making phenomenal plays, but I think when the pressure is on him that much, and I don't even mean pressure in close games, but just when it's so clear that he is the entire offense, maybe some of the bad

parts of josh allen then the decision making the hey i've got this cannon for an arm so i'm going to try this incredibly difficult throw downfield and it turns into a pick are you setting yourself up to have more of those plays by kind of going cheap not replacing the receiving core around him that would be my concern but again josh allen's a phenomenal player so i can also see this working out at least somewhat for the buffalo bills yeah i kind of like yeah i do i do think they should have added more in the offseason but i can see i agree i can see it working out for them especially if one of their younger receivers does hit a little bit because that's going to help and i guess the thing is you look at it now you it's not rare to get really good performances from rookie wide receivers and even got you know he's a right on the border between the first and the second round but it's not like

he was a top 10 pick but still you can count on at least a little bit of production from a rookie wide receiver especially when it's josh allen or a quarterback of that caliber and that's why it's Josh Allen throwing to you or a quarterback of that caliber. And that's why it's always like the Chiefs can just find guys because it's Patrick Mahomes and he'll make sure you're open. And it'll be interesting to see who kind of emerges from that. If you're a fantasy football player or a person, drafter. Man, what's the word? Manager. Manager. There it is.

If you're a fantasy football manager, I wonder who's going to emerge from there. Anyway, so that's the Bills. There's still going to be a playoff team this year. Yeah, they're going to be a tough out. They're going to be a tough beat every week just because they have Josh Allen, right? Yes.

On the Dolphins, the next team, best player in the NFL according to the NFL Top 100. That was a wild one. Tyree Kill. What on earth was happening there? I don't even think he's the best receiver in the nfl according to the nfl top 100 it was a wild tyree kill what on earth was happening i don't even think he's the best receiver in the league what are we doing here yeah that's bizarre anyway so they have tyree kill they're still essentially the same team i was looking at the roster a couple days ago and i was like how did they get odell beckham jr where did that come from not that he's like that anymore, but he's on their team too.

That's fun. A couple questions for me. The main one being, can you have Tua and be a Super Bowl winning team? Yeah. Is he a Kirk or is he above a Kirk? He can get you to Super Bowl. Is the team around him good enough to be a Super Bowl winning team? It does feel like you could win a Super Bowl with Tua,

but you would need the exact right circumstances around him. And I think you could look at that offensively. They have that, right? We know the way Mike McDaniel has structured that offense, the way he can scheme guys open, both as running backs and wide receivers. You could say you have that offensively. I don't know if they have the defensive component to say, OK, yeah, you can win a Super Bowl with Tua. I think as we saw last year, right, where they had to go to KC to play in the playoffs, you have to do everything you can to avoid that. Like home

field is so vitally important for this team. You have to go out and have a really, really good regular season record. I think he's kind of right on that line for me, where it's like if he was just like 5% better, you'd feel so, so good about their chances. But it's just like, ah, he can't quite get on board. Yeah, he can't quite get on board. I'll tell you the other player I'm so curious to watch this year is Devon Achan.

Because, I mean his his yards per carry number was absolutely ridiculous last year i was lucky enough to have him on one of my fantasy teams now he was injured man the weeks that he played it was like this is incredible this is the greatest thing i've ever seen what he was doing with the amount of touches that he got i have no idea what a bigger role looks like for him he's's 5'9". Obviously, he's not going to average 7.8 yards per attempt. Maybe. If he's getting like 200 carries, right? But with that offense, the speed threat, the way he can fit in,

I am so fascinated to see how Mike McDaniel uses him, gets him more involved, if they can significantly ramp up his usage without inevitably getting him injured. Yeah, the other thing a couple days ago that came out was Tyree Kill with Kay Adams, I believe. And he was talking about Noah Lyles. Yes.

And NBA NFL players hate Noah Lyles. Because he was like, world champion of what? When they win the Super Bowl or the NBA finals. It's like, guys, come on. Anyway, but Tyree he said he would, Tyree Kill said he would beat Noah Lyles in a race. No.

Which is wild. That's a wild thing to say. Man, like a guy wins. Just a wild thing to say. He just won the 100 meter gold medal. To just be casually like, yeah, no, I would be the gold medalist in the 100 meters.

Like, what? Do you know how hard those guys train? You are really fast. Yeah. He is much faster. Like, come on. Get out of here. It'd be fun to see, though. Let alone, like, the technique

on starting and all of that, you know what I mean? Well, and Tyreek's like, oh, I can, like, he's done track, but you're still not winning. But you're not full-time devoting your life to track. You're not beating the best. And I don't even like Noah Wilds. And I love that people are like, well, he barely won.

He still won! He's still the gold medalist what do you mean barely tyree kill barely would have like qualified yeah for the olympics and he probably would not if we're being real anyway uh patriots and jets patriots they're gonna be bad yeah so don't really have to talk about that. They are so bad. Is Drake May going to do anything? Probably not. No. And Jets. Aaron Rodgers. I refuse to buy into the Jets.

Absolutely refuse. Yeah. Now I know. How much of that is because of Dom? A lot. I'm not going to lie. I am definitely not above being that petty. I do not want to see him have joy.

Their defense is good. But it's just like, it's the Jets, and I know they've got talent there, but I'm not even convinced how good Aaron Rodgers is going to be at his age, coming off the injury he's coming off, all of that. I'm not convinced Robert Sala is a really good NFL head coach. And it's just, maybe I'm being superstitious. Maybe it's anti-Dom bias. Anti-Dom bias.

But they're the Jets. Yeah. I don't know. Nothing would please me more, and this isn't even anti-Dom bias, than Aaron Rodgers just being horrible. It would be funny. It would be so funny. After they waited so long to get him on the field healthy for a whole season.

I want him to play the whole season. So much hype. And we'll see what happens with Hassan Reddick as well like it doesn't sound like they're particularly interested in playing ball with him and he's just like yeah guys I'm not showing up so that's gonna be a fascinating situation too but I don't know I'd pick them third in the division right okay yeah so to go through the division well here's my order okay I got the oh yeah get in there dolphins jets patriots okay i'll go dolphins bills jets pats because i do think the regular season is going to mean more to the dolphins

for sure right and i think they have like the the bills have had really good regular seasons already so there's maybe less impetus for them to go out and try to put up that big record i think the dolphins still need to put a really good regular season together uh nfc east we got cowboys eagles giants commander starting with the cowboys they're kind of in the the leafs territory where it's like this doesn't matter regular season does not matter all that matters is the playoffs and or alias pedersen territory or alias pedersen territory so nothing matters until the playoffs for the cowboys and realistically realistically, it is Elias Pettersson territory where I can't even put stock into what they do in the regular season because I'm just not going to care until the postseason.

But that being said, I think they're still going to have a very good regular season. They have a very good team. Yeah, they'll be good. But then they're not going to look like true Super Bowl contenders, though. You know what I mean? They're going to be that. They're going to be like, yeah, they're a playoff team, but they're not in the look like true Super Bowl contenders, though. You know what I mean? They're going to be that. They're going to be like, yeah, they're a playoff team,

but they're not in the elite tier of Super Bowl contenders. Eagles, a much more interesting team to me. They started 10-1 last year, and then they got real bad, real fast. They added Saquon Barkley. So I do wonder how he's going to fit into everything they're doing there. It's a fun addition. I think they're going to be better. It's weird that there's so much pressure on Nick Sirianni to me.

I don't know. I guess it ended bad last year. I think that's the thing, right? He made the Super Bowl two years ago, and people were like, this guy's amazing. And then all of a sudden, it's like, wow. But if you let your team fall off the way he did last year, I think it's understandable, right?

And especially because there's talent there. You have Jalen Hurts who has his flaws, no doubt, as a quarterback, but can also help you win games. You have A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith. You've got pieces that should allow you to be a really, really competitive team. So when you have an extended stretch where you are not competitive at the level they need to be, I get why all of a sudden he's a little bit on the hot seat.

I truly have no idea what to expect from the Eagles this year. You could be Super Bowl contender, miss the playoffs. Either one, totally, totally plausible. Giants, I think they could be fun, but they will be bad. Yeah, Daniel Jones, not good. It's not happening until they get a quarterback. Could you see the washington commanders be a houston texans type team this year with jayden daniels they added austin eckler

they kind of have some receiving options too yeah well austin eckler's not doing anything for them i think you'll be austin eckler is cut he's absolutely he was bad last year he's not he's not moving the needle but the receiving core core with Jaden Daniels is interesting. So I think from that perspective, Houston Texans type turnaround might be a little much, but interesting kind of frisky fun team. Yeah, I think I could see that for sure for Washington. Okay, so in terms of ranking those teams,

I think I'm going Cowboys, Eagles, Commanders, Giants. Okay, I'm going to go. I'll throw the Eagles at the top and Cowboys, Eagles, Commanders, Giants. Okay, I'm going to go. I'll throw the Eagles at the top and then go Cowboys, Commanders, Giants. All right. There you go. The East Division previews. Authoritative. The most in-depth previews you're going to get anywhere right here from myself and Josh.

Okay, we'll continue to talk about the big story in the NHL this week. Double offer sheets. We talked about it with Lou Korak from a St. Louis perspective. Jack Michaels will join us next to weigh in on the Edmonton perspective on things. What will they do? How will they decide to proceed with

the offer sheets to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway? Get ready for the ultimate sports fan trip to Michigan from September 27th to October 1st. Experience games at the Big House, Comerica Park, and Ford Field. Contact Neil Chark at neilc at uniglobecarefree.ca

for details. Jack Michaels on the other side here. Halford & Brough, Sportsnet 650.