Ticats veteran DB Dominique Ellis among cuts (& five other thoughts)

The Ticats announced their cuts Sunday and the most notable name is probably veteran defensive back Dominque Ellis.

A three-year veteran, Ellis played in all 18 games last season and made 13 starts. Coming into training camp, he was thought to be a candidate for the vacant strong-side linebacker position but that spot will be likely be manned by newcomer Will Hill.

Ellis could see it coming, via this tweet from last week…

You can only control yourself but when you put in the work and it goes unnoticed take it as disrespect, and make them pay.

— Pop (@DominiqueEllis7) June 13, 2017

Other interesting notes:

1. with Alex Green released, Ross Scheuerman will be the back up running back behind C.J. Gable.

2. the release of four American offensive tackles means that, at least for now, there are no back ups behind Xavier Fulton and Jordan Swindle. That’s going to make getting through practice tough, nevermind the risk of injury. I would expect the team to bring in at least one guy, either cuts from other teams or a neg list player…

3. Jalen Saunders looked great early in camp before getting hurt and Damarr Aultman looked good late in camp. Both were added to the practice roster.

4. quarterback Cody Keith was released, meaning the team has Zach Collaros, Jeremiah Masoli, Logan Kilgore and Everett Golson (who’s likely headed to the injured list) on the roster. Wouldn’t surprise me to see them to take a run at Mitch Gale, who was released by Calgary today. He was in Hamilton briefly in 2015 and played with Collaros in Toronto.

5. Kay Okafor has been added to the practice roster and is now listed as an offensive lineman after being drafted as a defensive lineman out of St. FX in the 2017 CFL Draft. Ticats head coach Kent Austin talked about moving him to offence when they drafted him – he’s super athletic but very raw – and that looks to be happening.

Here’s the full list:

INT – DB – V’Angelo Bentley
INT – WR – Devon Breaux
INT – OL – Malcolm Bunche
INT – WR – Gary Chambers
INT – DB – Dominique Ellis
INT – P/K – Anthony Fera
INT – RB – Alex Green
INT – DB – Jabari Gorman
INT – QB – Cody Keith
INT – WR – Jay Lee
INT – DB – Travis Lee
INT – DB – Keith Lewis
INT – DT – Claudell Louis
INT – DE – Tyriq McCord
INT – DE – Ryan Mueller
INT – DB – Cheatham Norrils
INT – OL – Kona Schwenke
INT – DB – Solomon St. Pierre
INT – LB – Matt Wells
INT – OL – Palmer White
INT – OL – Torian White
NAT – LB – Corey Williams
INT – DB – Khalid Wooten

 The following seven players have been added to the practice roster:

INT – WR – Damarr Aultman
INT – OL – Brett Golding
INT – DT – Jason Neill
INT – OL – Kay Okafor
INT – WR – Jalen Saunders
NAT – WR – Jacob Scarfone
NAT – RB – Sean Thomas-Erlington

The following player has been added to the suspended list:
INT – DB – Ethan Davis