O’Leary: Despite rush, it ‘won’t be too hard’ for Sinkfield to slot into lineup

It’s been a strange, bruised up year for receivers across the CFL, so we should have a little bit more of a complete understanding of what Terrell Sinkfield Jr. is trying to do.

Signed by the Ticats on Oct. 11 after he’d been released by his second NFL team this year, the 27-year-old will get the start this week at Tim Horton’s Field, with his team in a precarious place.

In the first part of their home-and-home series last week against the Ottawa REDBLACKS, the Ticats lost their top receiver, Brandon ‘Speedy’ Banks for the season to a broken clavicle.

You can add him to the supremely talented list of pass catchers — Kamar Jorden, Manny Arceneaux and Derel Walker, to just get it started — that have suffered lengthy or season-ending injuries this year.

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Sinkfield participates in practice on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s game against Ottawa (TbrownPhoto/Hamilton Tiger-Cats)

Like the Stampeders, the Ticats have been pillaged by receiver injuries this year. Banks joins Jalen Saunders, Chris Williams and Terrence Toliver on Hamilton’s six-game injured list. National wide receiver Shamawd Chambers went down during Ticats training camp this year.

So, like DeVier Posey in BC and like Chris Matthews in Calgary, Sinkfield needs to get up to speed with the Ticats’ offence, like, yesterday if possible.

“Well,” Ticats coach June Jones laughed on Wednesday when he was asked about the ideal time it would take to work a late-season signing into the offence, “we don’t have time to do anything else.

“We’re down five guys. He’s getting rushed in, to answer your question.”

What helps Sinkfield is that he’s been through this before. After spending the 2014 and 2015 seasons in Hamilton, he came back from the NFL in 2016 and latched on with the Lions for the final seven games of their season. He had 16 catches for 297 yards and three touchdowns and played a big part in their Western Semi-Final win over Winnipeg. He led his team in receiving in the Lions’ Western Final loss to Calgary.

“Obviously you want to be there at the beginning when they’re installing the plays, because they’re going over it with everyone, but I’ve been bouncing around for a couple of years, on offence and defence,” Sinkfield said after a busy day of practice.

“Luckily a lot of the offence and terminology is still similar to what it was before, but we’re professionals and it’s our job to learn these plays. You’ve just got to put the work in and at the end it won’t be too hard.”

“Sink’s familiar with the culture around here, that’s first and foremost,” Ticats assistant head coach Orlondo Steinauer said.

“He understands what we’re about, even if it’s a different coaching staff. There’s familiar faces, he’s in surprisingly really good shape, he’s got a lot of burst and twitch. We’re excited to see what happens on game day.”

To get there, Sinkfield got some one-on-one time with QB Jeremiah Masoli earlier in the week before the team started practicing.

“We had a couple of days off earlier in the week so we got in here and watched film and went over the playbook and the offence and really started from square one. It was some good work together,” he said.

The silver lining to the black and gold cloud that hangs over the team in the loss of Banks is that Sinkfield — a 1,030-yard receiver with Hamilton in 2015 — is Speedy’s roommate. That’s proven beneficial for both of them.

“I’ve been taking care of him the last couple of days, helping him out around the house,” Sinkfield said. “In return he’s been helping me out with the offence. Learning, watching film and what to expect coming up in the game.”

With a shot at hosting the Eastern Final still in play, the stakes are high. On Saturday, under what’s expected to be cold, wet and windy conditions, the responsibilities could be just as high for Sinkfield. He’s fine with the cold weather, he says, remembering a game in Montreal a few years back that managed to squeeze all four seasons into a three-hour window. Cold weather is football weather, he says, and he sees his team playing in a lot more of it.

“The Grey Cup this year is going to be real cold,” he said. “I’m excited to see how cold that is.”