By Canadian Press

Steinauer, Dinwiddie both agree that final cutdown is difficult part of their jobs

Jun 4, 2022 | 12:18 PM

TORONTO — For Orlondo Steinauer, it’s the least-favourite part of his job as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ head coach/vice-president of football operations.

All nine CFL teams had until 10 p.m. ET on Saturday to finalize their rosters. Steinauer and the Ticats’ football operations department had plenty of evaluation and re-evaluation to do following Hamilton’s 18-17 loss to the Toronto Argonauts on Friday night at Guelph, Ont., in the final exhibition game for both teams.

“This is not a fun time,” Steinauer said. “I wish decisions sometimes were easier but I think the personnel department has done a great job of bringing in not just great players but good people and great men.

“We’re not going to have it to an exact science here heading into Week 1 but we will put our best foot forward.”

Steinauer is entering his third season as the Ticats’ head coach. Before joining the coaching ranks in 2010 as an assistant with Toronto, Steinauer was a five-time league all-star over 13 years as a defensive back with Ottawa (1996), Hamilton (1997-2000) and the Argos (2001-2008) and is slated to be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame later this month.

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Unlike past years, there was no pre-set roster number Saturday. According to the CFL, all players who ended training camp with their clubs were guaranteed of an opening-week game cheque, so it was up to the respective franchises to determine how many they’d carry.

Game day rosters, though, will be a minimum of 44 or a maximum of 45, excluding those on the one- or six-game injured lists. Twenty-one are national (Canadian), a maximum of 20 are American, two are quarterbacks and one is a global player.

If a team chooses to go with 45 players, the extra can be a third quarterback, another national or a second global.

Of a team’s 24 starters, a minimum of seven must be Canadian. An additional 13 players can be on a team’s practice roster.

The ’22 regular season kicks off Thursday night with the Montreal Alouettes visiting the Calgary Stampeders. Hamilton’s season opener will be Saturday night in Regina versus the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie echoed Steinauer’s sentiments regarding his dislike of final cutdown.

“It’s a tough day,” he said. “We’ll have some tough conversations with guys.”

But that won’t include Toronto’s quarterback room. Shortly after Friday’s contest, Dinwiddie said veteran McLeod Bethel-Thompson will be the Argos’ starter and backed up by newcomer Chad Kelly, the nephew of former Buffalo Bills star passer Jim Kelly.

Rookie Austin Simmons, who played much of the fourth quarter Friday night, will be Toronto’s No. 3 and short-yardage quarterback.

At least Dinwiddie and the Argos will have additional time to prepare for the ’22 season. Toronto has an opening-week bye and will play its first contest June 16 hosting Montreal at BMO Field.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2022.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press