Riders Allow Few Questions at AGM

Riders don’t allow many questions at AGM maybe because the Royals were upstairs?

Two different pictures of Saskatchewan collided in a south Regina parking Thursday night as the Saskatchewan Roughriders held their annual AGM in the Conexus Centre of the Arts on the same night as upstairs the Duke and Duchess of Wessex had a Royal Gala on their first night of their two day visit.

Picture if you will two elderly ladies done up in the finery making their way across the heaving parking lot while crossing their path was a sea of green clad owners interested in hearing what the Riders had to say about the 2015 season and more importantly, the 2016 season.

The star attraction was Chris Jones, who has spoken at a couple of sports dinners around the province but, other than seeing him in the parking lot of Taylor Field prior to heading up to training camp in Saskatoon, he has been a rare bird.

Now this is the 40th year I have been going to Rider games and I cannot recall a more change filled off-season than this past one.

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After cutting 19 players when taking over the Riders in December, Jones has been whittling down the former Rider content on the roster to the extent that of the 46 active roster players, only 14 were on the Riders last year. That means a turnover of 70 per cent of last year’s roster.

The funny thing about it this is the Riders are not the youngest team in the CFL. They are the third youngest. The Riders looked at 3000 players over 20 some weekends and the majority of the players they have brought in have some type of pro experience.

But they haven’t played with each other yet.

So the books closed on a $4.3 million loss, thanks largely to a loss in merchandise sales brought about by a 3-15 team. Last year was a nightmare as the team lost and people stayed away from the stadium and the lack of people was reflected in the decline in merchandise sales because who can be bothered with buying souvenirs of a 3-15 team?

The Riders costs in football operations were up as well because of the cost of paying out former Rider GM Brendan Taman and Head Coach Cory Chamblin through to the end of the 2017 season. If you think that is unfair, consider that player contracts are not guaranteed eh Weston Dressler and John Chick?

The poor economy took a swing at the Riders as they were below projections on their lottery earnings because the team was so lousy and fans were wondering why bother buying, but also spending extra on things like lottery tickets and merchandise when the economy is taking a nose dive is maybe not the best use of household funds when other costs are going up.

The Riders are not in jeopardy though.

They have $34 million in assets and a rainy day fund of $13.2 million. A few times during the evening, Rider CEO Craig Reynolds noted the connection between winning and the off-field financial performance of the Riders. That connection was a catalyst for making the change and bringing Chris Jones in.

Jones takes his fashion cues from Johnny Cash and in a weird coincidence, while visiting the Rider store, I saw some black long and short sleeved shirts with the initials CJ on the sleeve, which must mean Adidas expects Rider fans to warm up to Jones. In speaking about why he took the job in Saskatchewan, Jones talked about when he was the defensive coordinator in Calgary and was in Regina for a game. He had seen a Western Pizza offering an early morning breakfast and he went over on game day to take part and just after the restaurant opened it was filled with green and white wearing fans including an old woman who was giving him the evil eye for wearing his Stampeder sweatshirt. Right then the passion of Rider fans struck him.
“I wanted to be in a place where football mattered,” he said. “I’ve been in places like Rogers Centre where you would look around and the attendance there was lower than for a high school football game back in Tennessee.”

It was noted that Jones’ four Grey Cup rings were equal to the total number won by the Riders in 106 years and while Jones would not go out and predict a Grey Cup this year, he said the club would play fast and provided a bit of a preview of what to expect to see from the Riders.

“We played a Cover Zero 86 per cent of the time (Cover Zero is when the defense blitzes the quarterback and has no safety in deep coverage) and the average gain of the offense was 3.3 yards when we did,” said Jones.
So with the Riders enjoying their bye week or as Jones said, learning where bank and grocery stores were, the off field maneuvers of the team continue.  The team returns to practice on Sunday at which time there should be at least one, maybe two quarterbacks.

And here is who I think the Riders are bringing in.

Expect to see former Stampeder back up GJ Kinne, formerly of Tulsa and BJ Daniels, formerly of the New York Giants. This would seem to fit with the statements by Rider personnel guru John Murphy that the Riders two quarterbacks would see one on the practice roster and one on the roster.

Kinne has an interesting past where his father, a football coach in Texas, was shot by the parent of a player who thought his kid deserved playing time. The guy was caught and Kinne’s father survived.

After college Kinne signed with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent, got cut, scuffed around the United Football League and Arena Football League until signing with the Philadelphia Eagles because of injuries to then QB’s Michael Vick and Nick Foles. The Eagles attempted to convert him to wide receiver and then released him in August 2015. He then signed with the New York Giants in September 2015 and was on the practice squad until getting released after asking for his release in May 2016. He then signed with Calgary on June 13th before being released, obviously not enough time to show anything and with Drew Tate in as back-up hard to hit the sweet spot as the number three quarterback.

Daniels has been on the Rider negotiation list for a long time and was initially drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 2013. He was waived by San Francisco and then claimed by Seattle who had him off and on the practice roster for two years including a stint where the Seahawks tried to convert him to wide receiver. He was signed off the Seahawk practice roster in December 2015 by the Houston Texans who were bleeding quarterbacks and saw limited game action against Tennessee. He then signed in May this year with the Giants this year before just being released.

One or both or perhaps none of these two should be in town by Sunday. But considering how Jones like to convert players to different positions to offer the team greater flexibility, then there should be green lights over both these players. They are older players and probably looking to settle down, and with NFL experience, so unless they do a BJ Coleman and throw interceptions, they should be more mature in making readings.

Somehow I don’t think the Duke and Duchess of Wessex would have been as interesting as the Rider AGM