Once Upon a Time in Riderville (or day three of camp)

The fact the union stood its ground and forced the league to roll back its attempted coup at the bargaining table was a promising sign. For years the league has treated the players as things to be easily manipulated. The nature of the American/Canadian split in the membership, combined with Americans trying to get back to the NFL or failing that, some spring football league that folds after three months, made the contempt the CFL shows for the players understandable.

With the CBA settled, and more health care, a higher minimum salary and the promise of future sharing of revenue streams from the CFL’s attempt to go international, the league can move on to the on-field product and hopefully get fans interested in what happens.

Which is actually a good thing because after the wackiest free agency ever, the CFL has seen shifts in power and instead of say, Calgary and whoever survived in the East making it to the Grey Cup, there are a number of plausible contenders for the Grey Cup and what makes it interesting is whether teams can invest in big ticket items like quarterbacks while at the same time fielding a contending team around them that can fit under the salary cap.

The lack of increase in the salary cap means the rolling of the dice done by BC in signing Mike Reilly, Calary in retaining Bo Levi Mitchell and Edmonton in investing in basically the Ottawa Redblacks offense in Trevor Harris and Greg Ellingson, will pay off only if these teams can be competitive for a cheaper dollar.

The big ticket signings have forced teams to cut older, higher priced veterans. BC cut receiver Manny Arceneaux and Solomom Elimimian to which the Riders said thanks. Edmonton cut receiver Kenny Shaw and linebacker Adam Konar, which can be explained by Konar’s injury history, although when he is healthy, he is a fine addition.

Konar ended up in BC, where Ed the Mouth Hervey said his job was determining when a player was at the end of his career as he did when he released Solomon Elimimian. Well golly Ed, nice to see that getting turfed out of Edmonton did not dent your stellar self confidence. While the Konar signing was good from a Canadian talent standpoint and Konar is from BC and might take pressure off of losing Elimimian, if Konar goes on the six or nine game injury list, this was a desperation move by Hervey to take the heat off of losing Elimimian.

The changes even included coaches like Devone Claybrooks taking over in BC and Craig Dickenson taking over in Saskatchewan. For Claybrooks in BC, the trick will be to see how all the pieces fit together and how soon he can get BC showing the same team unity that existed in Calgary.

In Saskatchewan the departure of Chris Jones has fans wondering if the team is going to take a step back, especially as it swung and missed in the free agent market for Reilly and Mitchell. The Riders brought back Zach Collaros who has a glass jaw and has never played more than 14 games in a season.

This means the Riders, to borrow a phrase from the Toronto Raptors, will have to start looking at what is called “load management” where Collaros will have to be lifted out of games if the Riders are ahead big time or getting their asses handed to him. Not exposing Collaros to unnecessary hits will be job one and the Riders will not be able to depend on the league or refs to help things safe on the field.

So the question is who the Riders have a quarterback who might be ready to step up and provide a change of pace that may well save Collaros’ career and keep him healthy.

Let’s say hi to Isaac Harker of the Colorado School of Mines. At the Rookie Camp first day, Harker was on the field with Des Catellier of the University of Manitoba and Harker impressed with the way he rolled out, made plays and hit receivers. Harker doesn’ty have the arm of say, a Brandon Bridge, but unlike Bridge, he is more likely to hit his target and check off other receivers.

I won’t go into Catellier because he is here under the CFL Canadian quarterback intership program and with Canadian quarterbacks now counting against the ratio, Catellier will be interesting to see in a year or two with his draft class.

On the second day of rookie camp, Collaros, David Watford and Cody Fajardo came out to join the fun and it was interesting. Fajardo has the most pro experience, but tended to overthrow receivers. Watford can throw a cannon pass, but maybe complete one in 10 attempts. Collaros not surprisingly looked the best, but better news was Harker managing to keep pace with his play and his intelligence.

The Riders added to their quarterback stable by signing Ty Gangi of the University of Nevada, but initial reports out of Saskatoon indicated Gangi was a bit behind making the transition to professional ranks. I wouldn’t rule out a return by Kevin Glenn depending on how the quarterbacks play in pre-season, but if I was handicapping the order of quarterbacks, it would be Collaros, Harker and Fajardo.

The problem, and the Tuesday padded scrimmage seemed to confirm this, is that after Collaros, there is a drop off in the ability of quarterbacks to consistently move the ball. There needs to be a bigger sample size of quarterbacks, preferably in game action, but if someone doesn’t step up, then the odds of Kevin Glenn returning to provide some consistency goes up considerably.

So while I like Harker, he has been inconsistent through the scrimmages, making rookie mistakes one snap, redeeming himself on the next series. Gangi showed a bit in Tuesday’s scrimmage, but again, consistency is something the Riders are looking for in their quarterb acks and if Fajardo can’t resolve his inaccuracy issues, the Riders are in the same boat as they are last year.

Another interesting spectacle was the sight of international players like receiver Max Zimmerman of Germany, offensive lineman Rene Brassea of Mexico and defensive back Javier Garcia of Mexico. The question of how international players would fare on a CFL roster is a legitimate one and there are plenty of people holding back their thoughts until they see these players in game situations.

Off the top of my head, Zimmerman seems ready to take a spot and appears to be the most professional ready. Brassea may be ready but it is tough to say until the offensive lineman lines up against a defensive lineman. Garcia saw a lot of action in the rookie camp, but he also was in the chase position a lot of times and the level of competition at this level may be a bit much for him.

The Riders made some additions, adding wide receiver Austin Ellsworth and defensive back Solomon Means. It may be interesting to consider that former Rider kicker Tyler Crapigna, who sat out last year following an apparent hip surgery, was picked up by the Toronto Argonauts after the Riders released him finding no trade partners.

The Riders also said goodbye to former Number One Overall Draft Pick Josiah St. John who signed with Toronto. The Riders signing of 2018 draft pick Dakoda Shepley made St. John and his agent easy to let go.

St. John had spent most of the last three years learning how to play and recovering from injury and the aggravation his agent caused made it an easy decision to walk away. St. John finally cracked the lineup toward the end of last season and did alright, but the Riders feel better about their O line without him.

The Riders held their first practice in pads on Tuesday with the defense dominating, but that points out a change of thinking where practising in pads can lead to more potential problems with injuries than not. The Riders have centre Dan Clark still recovering from a car accident; defensive lineman Jordan Reaves left with an unknown leg injury the second day of camp; draft picks Justin McInnis and Brayden Lenius are sitting out with hamstring injuries (which should tell them to modify their conditioning programs); Mitchell Picton is out for four to seven dayus, and Christian Jones is out with an injury.

Other players not at camp are linebacker Solomon Elimimian who is out traveling with the CFLPA answering questions about the new CBA and defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy who is attending to family matters.

That being said, the Riders have some good, perhaps great receivers and the news that Arceneaux was out on the field ahead of schedule following his knee surgery may give the Riders some options to play with heading into the season. With William Powell presumably taking the majority of snaps at running back and Marcus Thigpen being a Swiss Army knife of a player who can fit in anywhere, the Riders appear to have restocked their running game with players who did not leave the NFL under a cloud unlike say, Tre Mason and Trent Richardson.

Look for Naaman Roosevelt and Kyran Moore to have big years at receiver and if you look at the receivers, even the rookies are big guys and the whole idea of a ball possession, throw it up to big receivers and have them take the ball away offense makes a lot of sense. Another name to keep an eye on receiving wise is Paul McRoberts, who has tremendous reach and size and providing the Riders can find someone to pull the trigger on the passes, might be a dark horse to make the team and be a star.

So while the Riders wait for someone to step forward in the quarterback race, on the defensive side of things, the team should not lose too many steps compared to last year. That being said, it is unrealistic to expect a defense to perform at last year’s level because they did tie a record for return touchdowns and what Jason Shivers brings to the job of defensive coordinator is completely unknown.

But it cannot be ruled out, because the Riders are probably stronger in the middle of the defense where you may remember Andrew Harris running through them like mules through a corn field in last year’s western semi-final. The defensive secondary might as well put on masks as they hold up opposing quarterbacks and receivers and take their bonus cheques.

So while the Riders missed out on Mike Reilly and Bo Levi Mitchell, they may benefit from not having to but veterans. Montreal released receiver Ernest Jackson who they poached from Ottawa a couple of years ago but who had a big contract with not so great production.

Part of that is due to the revolving door at quarterback in Montreal, a situation that will continue this year, and Jackson’s release was not surprising, but the timing is somewhat suspect, coming the day before camp. It may turn out that Jackson heads back to Ottawa who helped him be a star and who he helped win a Grey Cup.

Toronto cut offensive lineman Chris Van Zeyl after they signed St. John and Van Zeyl went to Hamilton, where all ex-Argos apparently go if they don’t want to leave the Golden Horseshoe. Toronto shelled out a whole bunch of money for receiver Derell Walker, but with the retirement of quarterback Ricky Ray, they do have some money to play with.

Another reason for the abrupt disruptions is that teams are putting together their war chests for those players and draft picks that go down to the NFL and come back at say, Labour Day. The addition of the right players might be enough to get teams over the hump to the playoffs and Grey Cup and you need to have the money on hand to afford bringing them in.

One of the interesting signings was Jon Ryan by the Riders, who released popular Australian punter Josh Bartel. Ryan is apparently the highest paid punter in the CFL, which has some people wondering what the Riders are thinking, but between the jersey sales and the fact the man is apparently kicking the stuffing out of the football and will likely last as long as Bob Cameron as a punter, the Riders may be looking forward to improving their special teams play of last year.

Again, today was Day 3 and as Winnipeg knows too well, no Grey Cups are won in May or June. This is a process and it will be fascinating to watch it unfold.

Just a reminder the Riders first exhibition game will be a road game against Calgary on May 31 which will be televised starting at 7 pm.

by Greg Urbanoski

Once Upon a Time in Riderville (or day three of camp)

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