Rider Scouts Make the Rounds

The signing of Kevin Glenn more or less concluded the Riders free agency sweep for 2015. The Riders were not going to keep all of their free agent prospects, and lost Brian Peters to the Minnesota Vikings as one of the last Rider free agents under consideration by the club.

It may not matter much because it seems the Riders have been scouring their series of free agency camps in the United States and have some linebackers who they have signed and not announced yet. And how do I know? Thank Jebus for social media.

The Riders signed three Canadian free agents with Michael Carter, a 5’10” 175 lb defensive back with Hamilton for the last three years; Kyle Jones, 6’2” 209 lbs a linebacker with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the last six years, mostly appearing on special teams; and Kristopher Robertson 5’9” 189 lbs, a 2013 second round draft pick by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers who returned to Canadian University football last year and ended up with five interceptions.

Silly me, those signings were announced already. What has yet been announced is linebacker Darwin Cook from West Virginia and DB/LB Mario Norman from Coastal California. These two are hitters and Norman has some Arena football experience which is probably where Rider scout Ron Selesky found him (Selsky was a former Arena football league player personnel guy).

Then the Riders extend assistant GM Jeremy O’Day’s contract and add the director of football operations to his list of responsibilities.This is a solid move by the team, locking in O’Day for the long-term and dare I say it, setting him up to be the replacement for Brendan Taman if and when he chooses to move on.

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The Riders are not going to pay Reg Curren of the Edmonton Eskimos a $150 k contract although the Riders were the highest bidders before Curren decided to check things out south of the border to see if there was any interest in him. The Riders are likely holding back some money in the event Ben Heenan comes free from the New York Giants this season.

So what we can expect to see is the Riders prepping for their mini-camp set for Bradenton Florida at the IMG Academy from April 9-12. The min-camp will feature probably everyone except Darian Durant, who the club says is still recovering from his elbow injury, but the longer he goes without throwing, the more the panic buttons will be pushed that Durant is done.

The camp will feature players who have signed, who are entering their first training camp and negotiation list players.  Apparently with the new offensive and defensive coordinators, there will be more veterans out to get a sense of what is going on and what to expect, and that should be interesting.

A quick word about Durant and his elbow injury in case you are wondering.

Durant is expected to be throwing in regular training camp, and the club is not looking to rush his return from recovery. The Riders though have to bear some responsibility for raising expectations of Durant’s return at the end of last season heading into the playoffs, only to have those expectations dashed against reality. So after raising those expectations, it is only natural to ask if the Riders were full of the proverbial Stampeder crap last year, why aren’t they also full of it this year and Glenn’s signing is intended to ensure the Riders have some sort of veteran starter heading into the season as they hope to develop another QB?

I sit back after typing that and I have to wonder myself;  where I am restraining myself is looking at how the Riders are handling their Canadian signings. The Riders need to increase their Canadian depth and signing other teams Canadians can sometimes pay off. It will be interesting to see if the Riders want to insert a Canadian at the field corner (The field corner is the cornerback on the widest side of the field from where the ball is snapped on the hash mark. Because of the width of the field, not many quarterbacks have the arm strength to throw to the wide side of the field so teams short of starting Canadians sometimes dress a Canadian at that position on the theory that there won’t be many plays headed that way.

The next major step after the mini-camp will be the NFL draft and hopefully the Riders can come up with a quarterback or linebacker or two just to make people breathe easier around here.; The NFL draft is important to the CFL and the Riders because there is an increasing number of Canadians being drafted and signed and the Riders don’t have a premium of upper picks. Therefore the Riders have to decide whether to draft someone who they know will go to the NFL and maybe come out in a few years, or draft someone who can contribute right away.

The other thing for Riders to looks at in the NFL draft is the status of their negotiation list players. These are American players who are added to a list and only we can negotiate with until they sign with us or go into the NFL and never come out. Ideally we look at adding players that do not fit the average sizes the NFL are looking for and are more appropriate to the CFL game. If those players are not picked up the NFL in the draft or the undrafted free agent signings after the draft, the next logical thing is for these players to look at the CFL.

So the Riders need to be ready to respond to signing players who come open, but they also have to think about their roster limits. The Riders have probably a limit of 70 odd players they can have under contract, so once they reach their limit, any player they sign means they have to release one. At this point, I would consider looking at the Riders to announce their releases first, at least until the CFL draft when the number of signings of draft choices and territorial exemptions (players from Saskatchewan signed by the Riders) helps out with expanding the rosters a bit.

The CFL draft is last and hopefully by then the Riders will have an idea of who is available for the CFL versus gone south to try out the NFL. The Riders have needs at receiver, offensive line, linebacker and defensive back and with one first round pick, it may be interesting to see if the Riders trade down to get more picks. There is the theory this may be a deep draft, but the Riders will have to use all the scouting acumen possible to put together a depth chart of Canadian talent that can compete and not just cash in a pay cheque.

One name to keep in mind is Philip Steward, a former St. Louis Rams defensive end/linebacker from the University of Houston. He has been playing in some experimental US football league, but would be a good addition as we look for linebacking help.

And finally, the Riders signed Jermaine Copeland and Justin Chapdelaine as coaches.  Copeland will handle receivers and Chapdelaine will help his father Jacques on the offensive side of the ball.