Manasseh Bailey has made the rounds on the professional football circuits in the last few years. Bailey has had stints with several NFL teams, before moving on to sign with Montreal for the 2021 season. Bailey played just 1 season north of the border, before he found himself drafted by the USFL.
Bailey will get the chance to return to America to play the game he loves, in front of fans who may be familiar with his name from his time in the NFL, and CFL. Montreal loses yet another wide receiver from their 2021 roster to the USFL, which could cause some issues if injuries begin to occur out wide.
Following an offseason that saw BJ Cunningham, Teo Redding, Manasseh Bailey, Shea Patterson and many others jump to the promise the USFL holds, Montreal and other CFL teams will be forced to scour the market to replenish the depth that has been lost.
It will be interesting to see if these upstart spring leagues continue to pull players away from the CFL, and how it will affect the CFL’s future as the premier league not named the NFL. Could the CFL actually find themselves threatened by the loss of depth players to leagues like this in year one?
Does the problem continue to get worse as these leagues make it through year one, and year two? I think it does. The CFL has one thing going against them in terms of motivating Americans to play the Canadian game, and that is the Canadian to American ratio. I have heard from multiple players how they have watched as opportunities passed them by due to the numbers game the CFL forces teams to play involving starting Canadian players, versus promoting the talent from America.
Whether it was Matt Mengel, or Cam Echols-Luper both men mentioned that the way the CFL approaches American players has stunted their growth on the field by forcing them to stay on the practice roster in favor of players that were Canadian born. I understand promoting the talent from your country, but the fact remains the U.S. produces the best talent on the gridiron, and to continue ignoring that fact, while simultaneously alienating players who otherwise would have stuck around could come back to bite the CFL in the future.
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