Riders Have Options Heading into Tuesday CFL Draft

The Riders feel that most athletes coming out of university, whether stateside or in Canada, need to acclimate coming into a professional situation and for offensive linemen, the usual time for making the transition to becoming a contributing member is about two to three years.

The Riders have also targeted free agent signings to bolster teams’ positions that were not well served by the members of the 2023 Riders.

There are some interesting offensive linemen, defensive linemen, linebackers, defensive backs and receivers which should make for an entertaining training camp in Saskatoon starting May 6.

The Riders have benefited from the merger of the USFL and XFL which not only reduced the number of teams but also put on the market a number of players who can make an immediate impact on CFL teams.

Some of the signings, like linebacker Diego Fago of the US Naval Academy are high character guys who will not give up like say, Nick Marshall from last year’s team. The Riders hold the third draft pick, and the feeling is growing they will go for a defensive lineman as their first pick, perhaps even Daniel Okpoko, from San Diego State who is from Saskatoon.

The Riders have three Canadian defensive linemen and with a philosophy that seems to depend on rotation, having another Canadian to provide a change of pace might help the Riders. In the CFL, unlike the NFL draft, the best players don’t necessarily get drafted highest.

With the NFL offering more money and the prospect of getting invested in an NFL pension after three years, Canadian players would be foolish to pass up a chance to go to an NFL camp, make a practice roster or even a regular season roster for more money than what they would make in the CFL. This is why the more talented Canadian football players get drafted in later rounds. Having talent is one thing, finding a team that will give you a decent shot or a team with a system that makes full use of your talents is quite another.

Some Canadian players do come back to the CFL after a year or so in the NFL. In football, politics is just as important as talent and the politics in the NFL is that teams are more invested in their own draft picks that the unsigned free agents who emerge from the draft with no immediate home. A Canadian free agent signing like say, Samuel Emilus, while talented, will not win over a spot from a draft pick any teams head office made and are banking their own job futures on.

So while the more talent Canadian players in the 2024 draft will be trying their luck in the NFL, the trick is finding players who might not have the physical attributes prized by the NFL, but who can play and possibly make an immediate impact on their teams. The CFL combine is entertaining to watch when you look at the one on one’s play, but the real work is in the player interviews where teams try to figure out if the player, they are interested in are interested in just coasting on their athletic gifts or if they have the character and work ethic to try to improve themselves on a regular basis.

Figuring that out is easier said than done.

Teams need to talk to the players’ college teams to see what their work habits were, how they were in the locker room, and perhaps more importantly, how they reacted to adversity. The Riders after the Chris Jones years had a talented but arguably selfish team that were more interested in throwing each other under the bus (Cody Fajardo railing about his receiver corps, Nick Marshall refusing to listen to his head coach and setting an awful example for his younger teammates before Marshall was busted for gun offenses south of the border). The collapse of the Riders in the last two seasons after Labor Day showed there is a cultural problem in the locker room where the players didn’t play for each other, but for themselves.

It would be unrealistic to expect many of the draft picks to make an immediate impact, but I suspect the Riders are thinking along these lines.

The offensive line between the stockpiled draft picks and the free agent pick ups appears to be fairly set. The Riders may take a flyer on a player going to the NFL, but not until the later rounds. The Rider’s receiving corps is talented but seems as fragile as glass. One hopes the hiring of Dan Farthing as strength and conditioning coach will help address the ridiculous number of injuries suffered by the Riders over the last few years. Some of those injuries were due to turf conditions and considering how the Regina Exhibition Association Limited has done everything to make a buck including a skating rink in Mosaic Stadium and then letting the ice melt and run into the turf, its no secret you step on that turf at your own risk.

Winnipeg in their record setting naming agreement with Princess Auto is going to put in new turf and their current turf is maybe 10-12 years old.

The Riders will have to look at similar changes with their own turf, which may result in beer prices going up to $15 to cover the cost. The interesting thing is after the news of Craig Dickenson, now in Calgary as a consultant, not being retained came out, fans were initially put off by Jeremy O’Day being retained as GM and given a three-year contract.

The rationale for that sounded like O’Day should be given a chance to name his own head coach. O’Day took over after Chris Jones signed the coaching staff to extensions and then took off for Cleveland to work as a consultant. The timing of Jones’ move meant many CFL teams had their coaching staff already in place and no one was going to let one of their staff interview in Saskatchewan in case they got the job and then the team had to fill that vacancy. Add to this the salary cap on football administration and the Riders had no other option but to hire internally.

It kind of worked out the first two years of Dickenson’s rule until Covid hit and the Riders inability to get any sort of consistent blocking from their offensive line sent Zach Collaros to Toronto and then Winnipeg and Cody Fajardo to Montreal.

By the way, both won Grey Cups.

The hiring of Mace, and I have met him twice, seemed to flip a switch for the Riders. He brings a new attitude to the Riders, someone who is not likely to tolerate someone with an attitude or unwilling to work hard to improve themselves. The free agent signings, starting with Ouellette, also impressed the fans I have talked to. The Riders need a power running game to take the pressure off their quarterbacks and Ouellette gives fans someone to cheer for who will also leave it all on the field.

The Riders did not get as many Toronto free agents as one would have hoped for, but the feeling seems to be the Riders are pointed in the right direction. The Riders have also been fortunate to avoid situations like the Chad Kelly sexual harassment complaint in Toronto from a former female staffer, and the Shawn Lemon banning from the league for betting on games he was in when he was in Calgary. The draft and the onset of camp means there will be a cutdown in the next few days. The Riders will be looking to see how Trevor Harris rebounds from his injury, who will emerge from the back up quarterbacks as perhaps the next one after Harris, and how the Riders offense will look under Marc Mueller, the former University of Regina Ram star quarterback and grandson of Rider legend Ron Lancaster.

The CFL draft is the last step before teams step out onto their respective practice fields and see if the hype their signings have generated translates into something positive.

After the last two seasons, I will not offer an inspired guess, but I will say the Rider problems, while not completely solved, seem more manageable today than they did six months ago. That for a team coming off two 6-12 seasons should represent progress.

by Greg Urbanoski

Riders Have Options Heading into Tuesday CFL Draft

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