Hollins becoming Lions' latest go-to guy
Receiver has worked his way from the practice roster and is now a primary target
Receivers Bryan Burnham, Dominique Rhymes and Lucky Whitehead were go-to guys for the B.C. Lions not that long ago. Now they're gone.
The Lions have neatly revamped their pass-catching corps over the last couple of seasons, and it's Alexander Hollins, who has worked his way up from the practice roster to a primary target after signing on as a free agent in February 2022, who leads the group against the Edmonton Elks on Thursday at B.C. Place.
B.C. (2-1) comes into this matchup with Edmonton (0-3) off of a 26-24 road win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a night that featured Hollins snagging seven passes for 215 yards with two touchdowns.
It was the first time a B.C. player has gone past the 200-yard receiving plateau in a game since 2017, when Nick Moore amassed 220. And Hollins' showing against Winnipeg comes in at No. 14 on B.C.'s all-time, singlegame receiving yard list.
The six-foot, 175-pound Hollins heads into the week leading the CFL in receptions (32, tied with Tyson Philpot of Montreal), reception yardage (402) and second-down conversion catches (11).
He had a breakout season last year, collecting 1,173 yards receiving and nine touchdowns.
“It's about player procurement. Ryan Rigmaiden and his staff scour everywhere you can think of, looking for players who are a fit for our league, and they're very good at it,” Lions co-general manager Neil McEvoy said, passing kudos to the assistant GM and director of player personnel and his team.
“It's about guys like Alexander Hollins who spend time on the practice roster. We were forced to find a way to move Hollins up because he was doing things that were so spectacular during practice. And, with the salary cap world we live in, you have to be able to find young players to complement your higher paid players.”
Hollins, 27, will be joined in Thursday's starting lineup by a pair of pass-catching veterans in Justin McInnis and Jevon Cottoy. They're both 27. McInnis is a former Saskatchewan Roughriders' first-round draft selection who signed with B.C. as a free agent before last season. Cottoy was a B.C. junior standout with the Langley Rams who signed with the Leos initially as a territorial-protected junior player in 2018.
The final two starting spots against the Elks are set to go to Ayden Eberhardt, 26, who has five career CFL games, and Stanley Berryhill III, 26, who has just one. Eberhardt signed as a free agent last year, Berryhill did the same this year.
McInnis is third in the league in receiving yardage (289). He went for 690 yards last year. His progress, along with that of Hollins, spearheaded the team opting against bringing back Rhymes and Whitehead this season.
According to McEvoy, it's been the efforts of Berryhill the past couple of weeks that led to the Lions releasing Travis Fulgham, 28, earlier this week. Fulgham, who was an engaging story as the son of American diplomats, put up numbers with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020 and there was ample buzz around his potential before this season. He had a particularly prevalent drop in the homeopener against the Calgary Stampeders.
Keon Hatcher, 29, who has had more than 1,000 yards receiving the past two years with B.C., is on the Lions' six-game injured list rehabbing from a torn Achilles tendon suffered last season. He's expected to be out until Labour Day, and the success that the group is having will make it easier to slow-play his situation.
B.C. found Hatcher after he bounced around some NFL teams. He signed as a free agent in 2021, started out on the practice roster but eventually forced the Lions into opening up a starting spot for him, much like the Hollins' tale.
“That's how you live in his league, you find your own players,” said Rick Campbell, the Lions' head coach and co-GM. “You can sign free agents (from other CFL teams) once and a while, but signing other people's players all the time doesn't usually work because of things like chemistry and salary cap. We're lucky we have the personnel department we have.”
Hollins, who is from Yazoo City, Miss., and played collegiately at Eastern Illinois, got into five games with the Minnesota Vikings in 2019. He had stints on the practice rosters of the Vikings and the Cleveland Browns.
Hollins tutored under Burnham, Rhymes, Whitehead and Hatcher when he arrived with the Lions. Burnham, Rhymes and Whitehead combined for 3,040 yards receiving and 18 touchdowns in 2022.
Burnham, 34, retired after the season. Rhymes, 31, and the team cut ties last January, leading to him signing as a free agent with the Ottawa Redblacks. Whitehead, 32, saw his contract run out after last year and remains on the sidelines as a free agent.
“When I got here as a rookie, seeing how Burnham, Lucky, Hatch and Dom worked and how they'd grind, made me want to fall in right behind them and work like that,” Hollins said.