Riders Onslaught on CFL Continues
If 2015 was a waste of time as far as Rider fans were concerned – at least until Pearl Harbour Day when the Riders raided the Edmonton Eskimos and made off with Chris Jones and his staff and then John Murphy the scouting guru of the Stampeders – then 2016 officially starts next week as the Riders hold their first free agent camp.
While Edmonton struggles to put together a coaching staff under Jason Maas, the Riders have a camp scheduled for Saturday, January 16 in West Palm Beach Florida, then January 17 in Daytona Beach FLA, January 23 in Montgomery Alabama, January 30 in Houston Texas, January 31 in Carrolltown Texas, and February 6 in Henderson Nevada.
The camps are a bit of a departure from previous Rider teams under former GM Brendan Taman and Head Coach Cory Chamblin who at first did not believe in camps, then did believe in camps leading to a mini camp in Florida. Someone made an interesting comment to me the other day by pointing out that even though John Murphy was the player personnel guy, the guys he had on his list technically belong to Calgary.
That means other than who is listed on the Rider negotiation lists, the cupboard is technically bare and besides, there are different priorities for the Riders this offseason. The Riders are looking to get bigger on defense and probably at receiver. These camps will be a good test of the ability of Chris Jones and Murphy to use their contact lists to shake out players not on the negotiation list of any team at the moment.