Roughriders Free Agency: What we learned from Jeremy O’Day

On day two of free agency, Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager Jeremy O’Day held a rather lengthy session with the local media. He talked about quarterbacks, free agents and the future of the club.

Here are some of the highlights.

The Riders tried for Jefferson

It broke many hearts in Rider Nation to see that star defensive end and the team’s 2018 Most Outstanding Player Willie Jefferson ended up with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Jefferson hit the free agent market after playing two-and-a-half seasons with the green and white.

O’Day said the club wanted him back.

“We were having discussions with Willie the whole time, and negotiating with Willie. I won’t speak to the reasons why he didn’t come back, but I know that we made him a fair offer that we were willing to negotiate. We actually got to a point with Willie where he decided to go into free agency, and we asked him to keep us in the loop if there was potential offers and if he wanted to come back to keep us updated. He decided to go elsewhere.”

Jake Harty and Tre Mason will miss 2019 season

The Roughriders signed running back William Powell and Canadian receiver Cory Watson Wednesday, and many were left wondering why. The Riders had Marcus Thigpen and Tre Mason locked up in contracts, and Canadian receiver Jake Harty was expected to come back after injuring his knee in the first few days of Riders training camp last year.

But O’Day dropped a couple of bombs about Mason and Harty.

Harty had to have revision surgery on his knee injury, and Mason injured his ACL, leading the team to go after Powell.

“(Tre) actually had surgery on the ACL and he’s going to miss the majority of the season. When that happens you’re naturally looking for who is going to be your full time running back. Thiggy (Marcus Thigpen) is a guy that we like in the backfield, but we also like to use him as a returner, so he has some value on special teams and that’s why we targeted William (Powell).”

There are negotiations happening with Naaman Roosevelt

The Roughriders receiving corps has only seen Cory Watson added since the start of free agency, which leaves a stable of pretty new receivers including Shaq Evans, K.D. Cannon and Kyran Moore, alongside a more experienced Patrick Lavoie.

“We understand that that’s a young crew of receivers, but the thing that I’ll tell you is no one knew who Jordan (Williams-Lambert) was, no one knew who Shaq Evans and no one knew who Kyran Moore was. So part of the responsibility of myself is we’re able to find good players as well. It’s not 100 per cent relied on free agency to make your team.”

But hope is not lost to get one fan favourite back: Naaman Roosevelt.

“We’ve been in discussions with Naaman. Those are ongoing,” he said.

A back-up quarterback is on the horizon

O’Day said they are looking at a couple of veteran quarterbacks, and not just because of Collaros’s concussion history. But he said “it is something we understand and with any team, you are going to want to have a back-up you feel you can win with, so those discussions are ongoing.”

Kevin Glenn, Travis Lulay and Brandon Bridge are well-experienced pivots who are still out there in the free agent market, but O’Day wouldn’t say who the club has been talking to.

Zach Collaros is the team’s #1 quarterback

Jeremy O’Day was emphatic about that.

“For the team, in general, I think it’s important just knowing who is going to be the guy going into camp … It was important for us to talk about it, it was one of the questions he asked when we negotiated with him and that wasn’t my decision it was … (head coach) Craig (Dickenson). I agreed with him when he told me, and we’re excited to move forward.”

Read more about Collaros’ return here.