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Riders Win, Miss Playoffs, Make Trades

Oct 11, 2016 | 8:54 AM

The never-ending training camp called the 2016 CFL season came to an official end for the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thanksgiving. They were officially eliminated when the Edmonton Eskimos beat the Montreal Alouettes.

Even if the Riders win all their remaining games and Edmonton loses their remaining games, Edmonton still finishes ahead of the Riders because they won the season series. The crossover doesn’t apply because the Riders would still have to finish ahead of Edmonton and there is only one crossover spot that would be available.

So the Riders managed to beat Ottawa 32-30 despite Nic Demski dropping everything but the girl in a game that shouldn’t have been that close.

However, as the Riders continue to fine-tune their team, on Thanksgiving Monday they swung a trade with with Justin Capicciotti and Xavier Fulton going to Hamilton in exchange for Lindon Gaydosh, Tommy Streeter and a fourth and seventh round draft pick.

It’s an interesting trade for the Riders, who effectively admitted their free agent signing of Capicciotti had turned out to be a bust for the team and for Cappicciotti. Cappicciotti is probably a pretty good defensive end in the right system, but not in Chris Jones’ system. To his credit and unlike Shawn Lemon, Cappicciotti didn’t complain and was a team player and got rewarded by getting traded back to Ontario.

The move strengthens Hamilton’s already strong defensive line and Fulton provides some needed blind side protection for either Zach Collaros or Jeremiah Masoli. The trade of Fulton was a bit surprising considering the Riders offensive line problems until Fulton returned and married a Swift Current girl so he wasn’t necessarily going anywhere, but this seemed a way to give Fulton a chance to get at another Grey Cup.

Gaydosh was a first overall draft pick in 2003 but has only played 10 games in the last three years due to injury. If he gets healthy, he could be a very good addition to the defense, but that is a big if. Speaking of big, Streeter is a big receiver at 6’5” which fills the blueprint that Jones is looking for, although hopefully he has worked out a bit on getting a little more physical.

Now the Riders didn’t get out of the Ottawa game scot-free. Armanti Edwards suffered a hand injury and Jeff Fuller had a thumb injury and are apparently done for the season. Demski who dropped a few balls also injured his shoulder but will only miss one game.

Which means the Rider receiving corps lining up against Toronto on Saturday afternoon will resemble a tryout camp and if I was six inches taller, I would send Jones a video of the days I burned CKBI TV and Wayne Paskaruk on the football field.

The other note about the trade is that Jones seems willing to admit in his way when mistakes like Capicciotti have been made and is willing to correct them in the same way he finally admitted Kendial Lawrence was not giving the Riders much on the field. It seems a bit ironic that Cappicciotti and Lawrence both end up with Hamilton, but Eric Tillman likes players out of Saskatchewan and Hamilton has its own problems these days with a receiving corps made up of voodoo dolls.

So expect to see players like Archelaus Jack, Ryan Lankford, Joe McKnight, Josh Stanford in the receiving corps as Jones evaluates whether they can stick around for next year. There apparently video of Caleb Holley looking good escorting Riders around Parliament Hill as the Riders spend the week in Ontario before playing Toronto and perhaps Ricky Collins Jr. will be able to come off the injury list.

However the urgency that might have forced some of those moves are gone with the Riders being eliminated.

The Riders with their salary dump with Cappicciotti and Fulton should be in a position to put the finishing touches on a deal with Darian Durant whose contract expires at the end of this season.

What is important about getting a deal with Durant done early-ish is that Naaman Roosevelt will likely re-sign with the Riders if Durant does. Roosevelt is originally from Buffalo so playing in southern Ontario in front of family has its attractions, but he also spent last off-season working with Durant and the two have pretty good chemistry.

Jones now has the opportunity to put together the other pieces of the puzzle in the receiving corps to complement Roosevelt. The Riders will also be looking at what their offensive line will look by moving Jarriel King to Fulton’s position and bringing in Joshia St. John to get some regular reps for the remainder of the season as the Riders see if they finish with the first overall pick or the third overall pick in the 2017 draft, which will see the combine held in Regina.

The draft deadline is today I believe and there is the possibility of more trades if the deals are right. Rider player personnel guru John Murphy says the Riders are looking very good with their salary management system cap so they are not in danger in being over, although he didn`t say the recent moves were made to sweeten and refine the pot of money for Darian Durant.

The Riders are riding a three game winning streak and are better than last year`s team, but the constant improvement and the play of recent additions like William Jefferson on the defensive line are reasons to be excited about what the next few games may mean.

The games basically mean nothing, but this is a chance for the team to leave an impression heading into next year. The Riders play Toronto this weekend, come home to Montreal, have BC come here and then go to BC.

The Riders may be unlikely to go into the tank for the first overall pick again, but considering the Rider spat of injuries in the receiving corps and Toronto`s useless offense, it should be an even match Saturday in Toronto.

Montreal choked against Edmonton and considering that Marc Trestman has been fired by the Baltimore Ravens, it seems Jim Popp may be staking his future on bringing Trestman back to Montreal to restore the Als glory years, although Trestman will not have Calvillo in the huddle. So when Montreal comes to town that may be an easy win or not for the Riders.

The last two games against BC will probably determine BC`s playoff standing and to some extent the Lions will not be able to send out their B team and rest their regulars. The Lions will want to establish some sort of momentum for the playoffs and they want to finish ahead of Winnipeg so they will bring the majority of their A team.

Which may suit the Riders looking to measure how far they have come and how far they have to go. Playing a playoff team will give the Riders a good indication of how far they have come and while 8-10 is the ideal, I would be pleasantly surprised with a 7-11 record because with the visible improvement the Riders have shown and the player additions, this team will be in a position to compete next season.

2016 will go down as the never ending training camp for the Riders, but there finally seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel.