Websites Discover that Rider Stories Boost Interest

It’s a gorgeous day in Regina as I write, just over two weeks away from the CFL week in Regina that culminates in a CFL combine of draft eligible players.

The last few weeks have been notable for the relative slowness of news, unless you call the hiring of Marc Trestman and Jim Popp a relative non-event, which it might have been in Toronto. However any number of websites posting stories about the Riders either involving potentially trying out Johnny Manziel, sending footballs to Vince Young, asking Brendon LaBatte to take a pay cut because the Riders are “in salary cap trouble”; saw an increase in traffic after posting those stories.

The question has to be asked as to why the Riders are the subject of a number of those stories compared to other teams.

It is probably a combination of things, starting with the Riders having the biggest fanbase in the CFL that irritates other fans of teams thinking they should have a divine right to having the biggest and best fan base in Canada.  Combine that with people not being happy with how Chris Jones operates and looking for any opportunity to knock him down a peg and, well, you have the perfect storm to slamn the Rider fan base while making any other team look good by comparison.

Consider the Manziel story of how the Riders apparently worked him out even though he is on the negotiation list of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. There have been no pictures released of said workout and nothing further has developed from the story, suggesting either it didn’t happen or no one could prove it happened. For the Riders to have a shot at Manziel, they would have to trade with Hamilton and even then, the babysitter service that would be required for Manziel to ensure he did not go off the wagon would be substantial.

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That would be a bigger headache than what it would be worth to have Manziel in Rider colors, although you have to admit, the Riders would sell a boatload of Manziel jerseys. Manziel would have to be a two to three year experiment and I doubt Manziel would have the patience to try to pick up the Canadian game and demonstrate he had grown up to interest the NFL in giving him a shot after a CFL tryout.

The Riders have a open book on a starting quarterback and the Riders putting Vince Young on their negotiation list indicates they are prepared to look at all options. But even this story doesn’t have a lot going for it.

Young has not played in a number of years and Peter King, who writes for Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback, said Young was not known as an accurate passer in his NFL days and there is no reason to think he has gotten better in the years he has been away.

Young is 34 and while I would imagine the Riders would have him at a mini-camp to see what his arm is like and what his general condition is, I somehow doubt he will pick up an invitation for the main training camp. Young and Kevin Glenn, who is 38, would be nothing more than placeholders or temporary solutions while the Riders shake out which quarterbacks will show enough to be a consistent starter.

The way the 2017 Riders are being constructed, perhaps all this team needs is a quarterback who can hand off and do enough to move the team, but not enough to lose the game and let the defense take over and win games. That would seem to follow the pattern Chris Jones used in Edmonton, although he had more to work with at quarterback.

The Riders are not likely to trade for James Franklin, mostly because Edmonton would likely ask for a lot and they might get it from Toronto. You have to think that Franklin, who will be a free agent at the end of the season will choose to wait and pick the best offer that suits his plans.

The other quarterback that might be available is Vernon Adams Jr. of Montreal and while Montreal may ask for a first rounder to make up for the one they sent to BC to get Adams, they may settle for something else just to build a healthy locker room for this season without having a quarterback complaining that he should be starting instead of Darian Durant.

The arrival of Trestman and Popp may have had an impact on the Rider plans, if they had them, to go after Michael Deane and Eddie Steele, who just got released by Edmonton. Both are Canadians and Deane is an offensive lineman while Steele is a defensive lineman and both would be welcomed to improve the team.

It was interesting in hearing second hand how some players did not consider Toronto before free agency because of the uncertainty over who would heading up the team, but now with proven winners at the helm, and with Toronto having some holes to fill, some pretty good free agents still available may be considering some offers from Toronto and seeing if Saskatchewan will be competitive.

What makes the hiring of Trestman and Popp interesting is comparing the rebuild going on in Riderville and Toronto and see which team breaks through first. Toronto has a bit of an advantage with Ricky Ray at quarterback, although that advantage will last only for as long as Ray is healthy, which may make signing Deane a priority for Toronto.

Then again, Toronto signed former Rider head coach Cory Chamblin as a defensive coordinator, which is interesting because Rich Stubler was already there and is a pretty good defensive coach. Chamblin was not impressive in Hamilton as defensive coordinator and then when he punted Richie Hall, proved to be not very good here as a defensive coordinator.

You never know if Chamblin learned something from his experience here, but then Trestman is not likely to suffer fools for long if Chamblin has not learned anything. But at least there is news from other CFL teams and that makes the wait for the draft more tolerable.

Speaking of no publicity, the CFL held their annual governors’s meeting in Arizona with no news coming out of it. Compare that to the NFL who just went through their combine and even though it is the offseason, they get about three hours of NFL talk on ESPN.

Not that the CFL could match up with that, but having someone who cares about the CFL, hell, even fans Skyping in from different cities to talk about their teams or asking questions, would be more entertaining that say the annual Snipe Hunt that TSN calls the NHL Trade Deadline.

That’s why I am holding my breath over the CFL week held here. I got my tickets for the various combine events just to see what they are about and will likely hook up with some Rider fans to check out the fan experience and talk with CFL stars and get some autographs.

But trying to find information is not an easy thing, especially in a city that talks CFL footballs 12 months a year. The CFL is doing the publicity for this but it seems non-existent. If the Riders were doing the publicity and organizing, the event would at least be better known. Hell, I would probably even buy a CFL combine shirt if the CFL had the marketing genius to think of such a thing.

But at least we will have a somewhat better idea of what the Riders might be up to in the 2017 CFL Draft. And who knows, maybe the Riders will have signed Colin Kapernick.