The more things change…

The Riders brought in mostly back-ups as they looked to see which players were either ready to step up or perhaps needed to move on. For the Riders, the big question was which quarterback seemed ready to step up and provide better back up to Zach Collaros than what Brandon Bridge did last season.

Mind you, that was before Bridge went for nine completions in 12 attempts for 142 yards and two touchdowns when Toronto beat Montreal 45-20. The comments Bridge afterwards about the offensive coordinator (Jacques Chapdelaine) asking for what plays the quarterbacks felt most comfortable with stand in stark contrast with the Rider offense that mustered one point on a missed field goal and basically operated like a turnstile for the Calgary offense throughout the game.

But I digress – the Riders were looking for someone, anyone, to look like they could run a football team and Cody Fajardo, he of the third down quarterback sneak specialty, looks like he could be a competent fill-in for Collaros considering Collaros has never lasted for more than 14 games during a CFL season.

The Riders were looking for Canadian receivers to emerge and Mitch Picton had the type of game where he had a fumble, but also made some catches. Whether that is enough to get him from distance from the Rider first two draft picks this year who are receivers is something else altogether.

The Rider defense showed it has work to do in terms of getting the back-ups playing at a level where they could step in when needed.

The Riders left most of their starting defense at home, so making any sort of conclusions is a mugs game, at least until after Thursday when the Riders wrap up their exhibition season Thursday night against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Rider head coach Craig Dickenson indicated as such that no cuts will be made until the Winnipeg game. Which probably eliminates the initial impulse to let them all go following the loss to Calgary. The feeling is the Rider defense with their starters in will be among the best in the league. The problem is the Riders depth might be shallow enough to indicate problems if injuries start to take a toll.

The ability of Calgary to break tackles once they got past the line of scrimmage harkened back to problems that afflicted the Rider defense in the 2018 Western Semi Final against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers when Andrew Harris ran through the Riders and clinched the Bombers win. The addition of Solomon Elimimian was supposed to have stiffened the Riders tackling prowess, but apparently Elimimian not making the field since touring the league to sell the new collective bargaining agreement has set the Riders defense back a bit.

So the question is who managed to set themselves apart from their competitors following the tight 36- point loss?

Well Cody Fajardo likely has claimed the back-up spot and Isaac Harker would seem to be the early favorite for the third string spot. David Watford, who was third string last year, threw an end-zone interception would seem to have reached the end of his development as a prospect with a great arm but questionable accuracy. Watford could stick around as a practice roster quarterback, but this could be seen a step back in his development or indictment of the quality of coaching he and the other quarterbacks are getting.

Jamal Morrow seemed to look good at the running back position as people vie to see who will spell William Powell during the season.

The Rider offensive line had its momentary lapses of reason when Harker was quarterbacking and got hit by a blitz, but then again, those moments were born from relative inexperience. The absence of Dan Clark at centre means the first choice to move over is Brendon LaBatte, but Braden Schram is also an option but this depends on how the team wants to line up.

So with a relative short turn-around and the Bombers in town for the final exhibition game on Thursday, the question is how much Zach Collaros should play before the Riders start their season on the road against Hamilton and Ottawa.

If the Riders use the 14 games maximum that Collaros has been able to play as a benchmark, and they are looking to run more to take pressure off of Collaros in standing in the pocket, then Collaros might see a couple of series, or maybe even a quarter of play just to get him up to speed. If Fajardo can move the team and if Harker shows that despite being a rookie, he has the ability to make reads and completing the odd pass now and then, then that will go a fair way to relieve the pressure if Collaros has to be pulled to the sideline.

The Rider defense needs to be formally introduced to fans and needs to get into a bit a rhythm before the season starts. That comes from playing together but when you hold back most of the starters, it is tough for a defense to develop any sense of rhythm.

The Jon Ryan experience was not all it could have been with Ryan averaging say 36 yards per punt, which included a shank. It will be interesting to see what kind of special strategy the Riders will employ now that their former special teams coach is the head coach.

The first week of the CFL exhibition season has flown a bit under the radar considering the lack of Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup hunt and the Toronto Raptors making the NBA finals. The Argos blew away Montreal, and then word came out that the CFL had bought the Montreal Alouettes from the Wetenhall family, something which seems to indicate that Kavis Reed’s reign of error may be coming to an end.

The CFL taking over Montreal could well be something to be concerned about, especially if the operations now involve taking more money that would have gone to other teams and sending it to Montreal. The other question is how this might affect the Atlantic Schooners, of whom not much has been heard since they came up with some sort of proposal for a new stadium in Halifax.

It will be interesting to see how Montreal is sold, to whom, and what they plan to do. One of the suggestions was the team be renamed the Quebec Alouettes and they might play a game or two in Quebec City. The feeling seems to be if the team is now branded as a provincial one, it might work to bring more fans to the team by playing the provincial card.

Whoever picks up the team may well get an exemption to allow them to dump Reed and perhaps others when new ownership takes over. In the meantime, Montreal is attempting to find a quarterback who can actually lead the team as opposed to someone like John Manziel who showed up, didn’t bother with the playbook and thought all he needed to do was improvise and he would just pick up the wins.

Montreal has done an interesting job of building up their defense, on the assumption that a good defense will win championships. Various moves that Montreal has done, like release wide receiver Ernest Jackson, who was once upon a time a free agent pick up, shows the team is learning to cut their losses.

Edmonton wrapped up its exhibition schedule with a loss to Winnipeg after beating BC in the exhibition schedule opener. With the number of changes teams have undergone, it would seem that the team that seemingly undergone the least amount of changes will likely emerge as the Grey Cup threat – so to paraphrase Metallica – Enter Winnipeg.

So the exhibition season will end Friday with Calgary going to BC and on Thursday we have a triple header with Toronto at Hamilton, Ottawa at Montreal and Winnipeg at Saskatchewan. In general you pick home teams for exhibition games, so Hamilton winning seems logical because they are the class of the east, Montreal might be able to beat Ottawa because Ottawa is a blank slate because of their quarterback situation, and Winnipeg should beat the Riders because that is what Winnipeg wants to do.

I’ll go with BC over Calgary, just because BC is looking for a reason to justify progress under new head coach DeVone Claybrooks and shelling out big money for quarterback Mike Reilly.

It might be possible to get some idea into how teams will do based on the exhibition season, but considering the nature of the exhibition season with a narrow window to evaluate talent, it will take until say, between weeks four to six to determine which teams may well contend and which are planning for next year.

In the mean time the Riders are trying to figure out who they are. The Riders have some interesting options like putting Manny Arceneaux on the injured list until he is fully recovered. Elimimian also might be needing some time to recover from his wrist injury and the Riders might be thinking that unleashing these two, not right away, might give their team an interesting approach as the season unfolds.

by Riderville

The more things change…

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