{"id":55915,"date":"2025-08-09T02:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T02:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55915\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T02:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T02:13:10","slug":"hogan-lanier-and-casey-stepping-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55915\/","title":{"rendered":"Hogan: Lanier and Casey Stepping Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Georgian came to the Toronto Argonauts with considerable fanfare, the other player from the Peach State joined the team in next to complete anonymity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Between Anthony Lanier II and Aaron Casey, the former is the more recognizable name to CFL fans. The defensive lineman became \u2013 after five years in the NFL \u2013 a terrific player with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. His best statistical season was 2022, when he recorded eight sacks.<\/p>\n

Following a 2024 season that was not up to his lofty standards, the Savannah native signed with the Argos. Following a mass defection by members of the Grey Cup championship defensive line, a major retooling was needed, and the Argos were excited to land someone with Lanier\u2019s ability.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While he brings size and physicality to the group, he told Argonauts.ca that his superpower as a player is located between his ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding my personnel as far as who I\u2019m playing with,\u201d explained Lanier. \u201cUnderstanding people\u2019s keys and techniques. Understanding their strong points and using myself as a sacrificial lamb to continue to make everything else work and fully function.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation, if it takes him being double teamed to allow someone else on the defence to make a play, he\u2019s all in.<\/p>\n

So far, he\u2019s been closer to his 2022 form than that of the player fans saw last season. He\u2019s already set a career high with 20 tackles, added a pair of sacks, blocked a kick, and most importantly become an important part of an Argo group that virtually shut down the vaunted Winnipeg running game last week.<\/p>\n

The D also got a pick six from Cameron Judge, who caught a football that had been tipped at the line by the 6\u20195\u201d Lanier, who says the Blue Bomber game was an indication that the defence is starting to hit its stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you can see it took time because we needed to tweak so many things,\u201d said the big d-lineman and apparent auto mechanic. \u201cIt\u2019s just like building a brand new engine, sometimes you\u2019re going to put a brand new bolt on there, and sometimes you need two more quarter turns to the right to make sure it fires up and you get that purr that you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newest cog in the Argos defensive engine is Casey, a native of Douglasville, Georgia, a short drive west of Atlanta. Unlike Lanier\u2019s signing, Casey\u2019s arrival in Toronto flew well under the radar unless you\u2019re a fan of NCAA football. Those who do know all about him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 6\u20191\u201d, 230-pound linebacker was a star at Indiana, capturing First Team All-Big Ten recognition two years ago. He compiled 244 tackles over his career, 109 of which came in his redshirt senior season, the same year he led the NCAA with 19 solo tackles for loss.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t drafted, but the Cincinnati Bengals signed him, though he was released midway through his first training camp. After seeing him show off his skill and power in Toronto, it led Argonauts.ca to ask why he was let go by Cincy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to see a sense of urgency from the start,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt took me a little while to get going there. I believe that was my downfall, it just took me a while to get going. I didn\u2019t want to bring that here to Canadian ball and just jump on things early.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little question he\u2019s been able to make a strong early impression this time around.<\/p>\n

While he hasn\u2019t found himself in the starting lineup yet, he\u2019s been impressive in the snaps that he\u2019s taken. When the Argos go into a 3-4 formation they can have Casey, Wynton McManis, Cameron Judge, and Isaac Darkangelo on the field at the same time.<\/p>\n

That quartet doesn\u2019t miss a whole lot of tackles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Though not a starter, Casey has four sacks in just five games, leaving him tied for second in the CFL, just a pair behind his Argo teammate Andrew Chatfield Jr.\u2019s six.<\/p>\n

Playing with those players has been a big help for Casey as he tries to acclimate himself to a new city, a new country, and a new brand of the sport in which he excels. He says he\u2019s asking a lot of questions and getting more and more confident as the weeks progress.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old was known as a vocal leader during his days at Indiana. Upon his arrival in Canada, he had to decide whether he was going to be relatively quiet at first, gradually establishing his presence in the locker room, or would he come in with the same confidence and vocal leadership skills he exhibited with the Hoosiers?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been more quiet here, we\u2019ve got great vets in the room,\u201d he explained. \u201cI just wanted to come in and earn respect from my peers. I\u2019m coming in, doing everything the right way, showing I\u2019m here to play, not mess around, and get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s already earned the respect of Lanier.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually see him as one of the dominant linebackers in the CFL.\u201d<\/p>\n

High praise from someone who has returned to his form as one of the dominant defensive linemen in the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Georgian came to the Toronto Argonauts with considerable fanfare, the other player from the Peach State joined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-55915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}