Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
It was a different kind of free agency for Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager, Jeremy O’Day.
With the Riders claiming the Grey Cup for the fifth time in CFL history, other teams saw players to improve their own squads in Saskatchewan’s championship team.
“It was a lot of moving pieces. I think free agency was pretty unique for us this year where pretty much every position that you looked across the board, our free agents were top targets,” O’Day said. “It was a challenge with managing who we would get back and who we would be able to offer. We had to have a game plan going in and you don’t really know how it’s going to go until you start talking with the players’ representatives.”
The Riders focused on bringing back a lot of potential free agents from last year’s championship team. That included getting pieces of the team like quarterback, Trevor Harris; running back, A.J. Ouellette; wide receiver, Kian Schaffer-Baker; and offensive lineman, Jermarcus Hardrick, back under contract.
But there are a number of players who will be wearing new colours next season, including defensive end, Malik Carney (Edmonton Elks); linebackers A.J. Allen and C.J. Reavis (both Ottawa Redblacks); and wide receiver, Tommy Nield (Winnipeg Blue Bombers).
“At this time of the year, your roster is kind of where it’s at,” O’Day said. “We will continue to look and see if there are guys that will still fit in and if there’s areas we can add too. Most of the heavy lifting is done and now we’re really focused in on signing guys off our negotiation list and we’ve really flipped over to the draft.
“We feel good with where we are at. We knew it was going to be a challenge but we’re excited with where we ended up.”
On the first day of CFL free agency, the big name brought in by the Riders was defensive end, James Vaughters. The CFL veteran has 27 sacks over five CFL seasons.
“We tried to sign Vaughters a couple of years back – I think when he was coming back from the NFL – so we’ve had discussions with him in the past,” O’Day said. “That’s an area where we lost some guys at the defensive end position. When we looked at the room, we wanted to add some veteran experience and someone who has played a number of years in the league and has experience working with (head coach Corey Mace), and he knows our defence.”
One of the big moves the Riders made this off-season came before free agency and the CFL negotiation window as the team parted ways with long-time kicker, Brett Lauther.
“He’s been a very good player for us for a number of years – aside from the fact he’s a good football player, he’s excellent in the community and in the locker room,” O’Day said. “It’s difficult decisions you have to make. They are not decisions we take for granted or make snap decisions on. We felt like we gave Brett opportunities and stuck by him for a long time. Ultimately at the end of the year, you have to evaluate and see where you feel as an organization. It was a tough decision.”
O’Day continued, “Brett’s a pro and class act. He made a lot of big kicks for us – when a player has a down year, people tend to forget what he did for us in the past.”
The Riders currently have two kickers signed to their roster ahead of training camp – Michael Hughes, who kicked in a game for the Riders last season, and the recently-signed Jonathan Kim.
Long-time long snapper, Jorgen Hus, remains a free agent. He has been with the team since 2014.
“He’s trying to evaluate whether he wants to play again or not. He’s got off-field stuff that he does as well. Kind of ongoing with Jorgen,” O’Day said, summarizing the situation.
O’Day also added that they haven’t spoken to wide receiver Mitch Picton too much this off-season.
“My understanding is that Mitch is probably not going to play. We probably need to follow up on that, but the last we spoke with his agent, that was the plan for Mitch,” O’Day said.
While the Riders will continue to evaluate and look at ways to improve their roster, it doesn’t appear like a deal with current CFL free agents is on the cusp of being announced.
“There are no deals that are coming down right now,” O’Day stated. “We don’t have any that are out, but it can change. We will still have conversations with some guys who are pending free agents and if it’s something that fits for both of us, you just never know but we do that the whole season.”
