Six members of the B.C. Lions were honoured as part of the West Division All-CFL team on Wednesday, but one glaring omission stunned the organization.
Calgary’s Jaylon Hutchings and Saskatchewan’s Micah Johnson were named as the two defensive tackle selections, leaving Jonah Tavai on the outside looking in. The second-year man out of San Diego State has been quietly credited by the Lions as their defensive catalyst this season, but has yet to be recognized as a household name.
Defensive coordinator Mike Benevides had a succinct message to voters who opted not to include his stalwart interior gap-plugger on their ballot.
“Go talk to the o-linemen and see what the f*** they think, because he should be,” he said.
“If you watch the tape and you look at all the plays he makes, he makes so many plays on the run, and he’s able to be disruptive against the pass. He’s an interior guy who has a bunch of sacks. He’s been disruptive on the pass. Until last week, you’re looking at the number one pass defence in the league — that’s because of those (defensive linemen), too.”
Few would take issue with Hutchings’ inclusion on the list, as he was widely regarded as the top defensive tackle in the CFL this season and led all interior pass rushers with eight sacks. However, Johnson’s selection over Tavai is rightly controversial.
Tavai recorded 26 defensive tackles, including a position-best five tackles for loss, and five sacks this season. Johnson, who earned his eighth career all-star nod, finished with 20 defensive tackles, just two of which went for a loss, and six sacks.
Pro Football Focus, which grades the performance of CFL players on a per-snap basis, rated Tavai the third-highest of all interior defensive linemen this season behind only Hutchings and Saskatchewan’s Caleb Sanders, who was used in a rotational role and primarily listed as a backup. Tavai and Hutchings are the only two defensive linemen, edge or interior, with a pass rush grade above 80.0 and a run defence grade over 75.0.
Johnson was ninth on PFF’s defensive tackle list and third on his own team, with Mike Rose also grading out ahead of him. The two East Division All-CFL selections, Montreal’s Shawn Oakman and Hamilton’s Casey Sayles, were seventh and 20th, respectively.
Where Johnson does possess an edge is in games played, as Tavai was limited to just 13 appearances due to injury. However, he played more total snaps in that limited time frame than his counterpart did across 17 contests.
“So consistent. He’s the heartbeat of a lot of things we do on defence and he’s a leader. He’s really stepped into his role,” head coach Buck Pierce said of Tavai. “A guy that might not be credited with a lot of success, but he’s a guy that makes a lot of things tick. He definitely deserves a ton of credit.”
While personal accolades are nice, playoff wins are better. After missing the regular-season finale with a thigh injury, Tavai has been listed as limited this week in practice. The team is cautiously optimistic that he’ll be ready to go come the West Semi-Final on Saturday, which would be a huge boost given his importance to their defence.
“Impactful play after play after play. He’s underrated,” Benevides stressed. “He’s not a big mouthpiece; he’s a good soldier. He absolutely should be (an all-star), as dynamic as he’s been.”
The B.C. Lions (11-7) will host the Calgary Stampeders (11-7) in the West Semi-Final at BC Place Stadium on Saturday, November 1, with kickoff slated for 5:30 p.m. EDT. The Stampeders won their final three games of the regular season, including a 20-10 victory over the Edmonton Elks, while the Lions knocked off the Saskatchewan Roughriders last week to finish second in the West Division standings.
The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS in Canada, and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on 770 CHQR in Calgary and 730 CKNW in Vancouver.
J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league's Global initiative.
