Jimmy Jeong/CFL.ca
The top priority for slotback Lemar Durant is for the BC Lions to win their first game of the CFL season this weekend.
Now, if that win happens to come against Durant’s former Calgary Stampeder teammates, well that’s just a little extra bonus.
“It’s always nice if I get it against Calgary,” Durant said after practice this week as the Lions (0-2) prepared to face the Stampeders (0-1) Saturday at McMahon Stadium.
“A win is a win. We have to start putting those wins on the board and make it a trend.”
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The game will also be DeVone Claybrooks’ first in Calgary since leaving the Stampeders to become the Lions’ head coach.
“It’s going to be fun to go back but we are 0-2 and they are 0-1,” said Claybrooks, who had been a coach with the Stampeders since 2012 and was the defensive coordinator the last three years.
“It’s important because it’s the next game and the next game just happens to be the Stampeders.”
In the Lions free agent feeding frenzy this year signing Durant might have been seen as a hors d’oeuvre, but already the 26-year-old Vancouver native has proven to be valuable addition.
In two games he has nine catches for 100 yards and caught the only two touchdowns thrown by quarterback Mike Reilly. While other parts of the BC offence struggle to mesh, Durant and Reilly seem in sync.
“I found it pretty easy to fit in,” said Durant. “Me and Mike put in a lot of work in the off-season, just working on little things, getting the intricacies down.”
Reilly said the time he spent working with Durant has already paid dividends.
“I think that has kind of accelerated our process,” said Reilly. “He has a lot of different skill sets than I assumed and anticipated.
“When I see a DB with a certain type of leverage on him, back in February (I would have thought) it’s not a good matchup. Now, knowing what I know about him and having spent that time with him, I know I can work that side of the field and he’s going to get open.”
At six-foot-two and 218 pounds, Durant isn’t the biggest receiver on the field but he can bench press 400 pounds.
“The guy is probably the strongest receiver I have ever played with,” said Reilly. “He presents a matchup issue with any defender on the field.”
He also has deceptive speed, making him elusive to match up against.
Durant catches a touchdown pass in the Lions loss in Edmonton last week (The Canadian Press)
Durant signed with the Lions in May after five seasons in Calgary.
Picked 18th overall in the 2015 draft, Durant played in 51 games for the Stampeders, making 102 catches for 1,280 yards and eight touchdowns. He was the most valuable Canadian in last year’s Grey Cup victory where he had four catches for 30 yards and a touchdown.
“It was a tough decision,” Durant said about leaving Calgary. “It was a little bit of everything mixed in.
“Coming home is always nice. I just felt (the Lions) was the best situation for me to take my career to the next level as an individual. I saw the things they were building here with the players they were getting. All the pieces just seemed to fit in.”
Durant is still making the transition from being a supporting actor in Calgary to being part of the Lions’ starring cast.
“We’re asking him to do something he hasn’t done throughout his career,” said Reilly. “He’s become a primary on different routes, we’re increasing his workload more than he’s done in the past.
“It takes time to get that experience to be leaned on like that.”
Claybrooks is pleased with Durant’s development.
“I’ve known him since he was a rookie in Calgary,” he said. “This is what we expected. He understands our expectations and he’s embracing it and has been great for us.”
Durant played receiver while attending high school in Coquitlam, just outside of Vancouver, but filled in at quarterback when the starter suffered a season-ending injury. In seven games he threw seven touchdown passes and ran for 16 more majors. He helped his team win the provincial championship and was named Coquitlam’s male high school athlete of the year in 2009.
At the professional level, Durant is happy being a receiver.
“The guy is probably the strongest receiver I have ever played with. He presents a matchup issue with any defender on the field.”
– Mike Reilly on Lemar Durant
“I don’t know how these quarterbacks do it,” he said. “Playing receiver, I feel like there is a lot on my plate. Quarterback man, that’s a tough job.”
BC added some big names to their roster through free agency but the Lions have looked very average in losing their first two games to Winnipeg and Edmonton.
Last week, in Reilly’s Edmonton homecoming, the Lions led 17-3 with almost five minutes gone in the second quarter before being outscored 36-6 for the rest of the game.
Reilly was sacked seven times and took some hellish hits. So far this year he’s completed 36 of 66 passes for 473 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
It’s early in the season but BC has scored just three touchdowns – one of them on a Brandon Rutley 73-yard punt return in the opening game – while the defence has allowed an average 36 points a game, second highest in the league.
Claybrooks said the team is still evolving.
“It’s not the players at all,” he said. “It’s more of us getting on the same page.”
Reilly knows there already is some grumbling among Lions’ fans.
“I’m not happy with our results and I’m not happy with where we are at,” he said. “I’m certainly not hitting the panic button. The best teams I have ever been on have lost more than two games in a row.
“I knew it wasn’t gong to be easy. I don’t doubt our team. We have to be more consistent. I have seen flashes of the ability to be great. Flashes don’t get you there.”
Durant said there’s plenty of time to turn the season around.
“We have the talent to beat anyone in this league,” he said. “It’s just learning how to win.
“We are a new team. We have to get the win and see how it feels and build off that.”
