Caps and Performances Don’t Always Go Together

The first week in 2015 has the Rider brain trust back at work and tinkering on how to make the Green and White better in 2015.;

This is an interesting exercise viewed from afar as the Riders are finding out they are as susceptible as everyone to thinking they are as good as their hype.

For instance, everyone said last year the Riders had one of the top offensive lines in the CFL. When you subtract the number of games Chris Best and the number of penalties the team took, a picture emerges of a line that may have coasted on past glories.

The Riders released Dominic Picard, their centre, in what was said to be a salary cap issue and a day later he signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Picard had signed a contract extension last year before the Riders protected him in the Ottawa expansion draft. The idea was to keep the offensive line together while sacrificing Keith Shologan and Zach Evans to the Ottawa Redblacks from the defensive line.

The offensive line had its own problems, namely penalties and the inability to keep Darian Durant on his feet for 18 games. Picard got his share and the feeling in Riderville was his contract was too large considering the performance they got out of him

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The Riders would have resigned Picard at a lower salary amount, but Winnipeg has more holes in its offensive line and came in with a better offer. Unless the Riders get lucky and sign Brent Jones, due to try his wares south of the border, Picard’s replacement would be Cory Watson or Dan Clark if he resigns.

Centre is a valuable position of football because they usually call out the blocking signals and a good centre will recognize and adjust the Line behaviour depending on what he sees. So if you assume that Picard made 195 K in a salary management system where the total player cap is 4.04 M and would be going up to 225K in a 5.05 M cap system, you have a lot invested in an aging player whose play slipped this past year.

From a football management end, you would renegotiate the contract if you could, and if you let him go, if you had another option, that would take a bit of the sting away. The Riders have guys they would like back, like Weston Dressler, and maybe even attract SJ Green, and those guys will take money.

What does sting is in losing Picard, the Riders did not get anything back in exchange for him. But in terms of snaps going over quarterback’s heads, stupid penalties being taken because he was being physically out-manned in trying to stop a defensive player, well, I was ready to lose Picard last year to Ottawa in the draft. If we had done that and kept Shologan, would we be ahead? I would say somewhat, but this is a new era in football where if you don’t put a realistic dollar figure on players performance, you hurt the club if you are the general manager.

Our offensive line will be changing more than a centre.  Doug Malone will be joining George Cortez in BC meaning the Riders will be looking for a new offensive line coach. Malone was renowned for teaching the Rider players the best ways to hold.

Two years in a Pros and Joes evening at Taylor Field to benefit prostate cancer, I spent about 10 minutes talking with Malone about how to use martial arts hand moves for offensive linemen. I don’t know how effective Malone’s techniques were because I recall a fair amount of plays where the linemen were just beat off the line What will be interesting to see if who the Riders get can couch up their Canadian back-ups to where they will be legitimate players instead of guys sitting on the bench collecting a cheque.

The early front-runner is Dan Dorazio, former offensive line coach of BC who was let go when Mike Benevides was let go. Our new coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine likes him although the Lions fans I have talked to are happy he is going, apparently now very good developing an offensive line out west.

Speaking of Benevides, still no word on whether or not he will assume the defensive coordinator duties here in the city that rhymes with fun. There are probably two issues to bear in mind here.

The first is personal. If Mrs. Benevides is working at a pretty good job, she would probably tell him that since he is collecting money for sitting on the couch, why rush into someplace that just had a minus 29 and where she is not guaranteed to make as much or even find a job in her area? Benevides would still need to be paid out as a former coach so he could take his time.

The second is professional. Rider Head Coach Cory Chamblin has indicated he would take over defensive coordinator duties and called the defensive plays in the western semi-final.  Chamblin said he wanted someone to call his defense, which would be more aggressive. Now if you were going to be asked to be a defensive coordinator, would you want someone standing over your shoulder telling you what plays to run? This would not be the best way to establish you can still coach at a coordinator/head coach level if you couldn’t bring something you know how to do to the party. If I was a betting man, I would say Chamblin becomes defensive coordinator.

The Riders did land Ron Selensky as director of US scouting, which is something that should have been done three years ago. Selensky comes to the Riders from the Arena Football League, but has NFL experience and contacts. The AFL has provided a fair number of players for CFL consumption, and having someone with contacts there is a good first step.

This though is a move that should have been at least three years ago. At a Rider annual meeting, Rider GM Brendan Taman said US scouting would be improved, but it seemed like the Riders would send their assistant GM Jeremy O’Day and Craig Smith director of scouting, down to various NFL camps to see who was available. Having a US scout full time should mean getting people in place, former Riders most likely, to do scouting in various parts of the country and reporting back on potential players. No idea if this is what is planned, but again, as a first move, it is long overdue.

The Riders did sign two players. Linebacker Ryan Wellman, formerly of the University of Regina Rams, was re-signed along with wide receiver/fullback Alex Anthony. Wellman has long arms idea for knocking down passes while Anthony was injured last year, but has the size to line up at fullback if necessary. If these players can be developed, the Riders will continue to progress.

On the other hand, Ben Heenan has between five and eight NFL teams expressing interest and tryouts in the next few weeks. The odds are that Heenan will get an NFL tryout which means the Riders will go with two imports on the offensive line unless someone really steps up pick time. If Heenan goes to the NFL, the earliest he will be back would be Labour Day, unless he gets cut in the meantime.

Weston Dressler is still unsigned, although if he sat in on the interview with Jacques Chapdelaine and was asking questions along with Darian Durant, would be an indicator he will be returning this year. Not sure if the Riders are looking to make salary cap room for SJ Green, but Duron Carter of Montreal has at least eight teams interested in him. When Carter goes, I would expect Montreal to make another offer at Green because losing Green and Carter in the same year would be an ugly experience in Montreal.

So free agency starts February 15 and slowly but surely, the Riders are taking shape. Who they make a run at and how much they hold back in case they need to resign Heenan will be interesting, but that’s why they have the offseason, because the most interesting stories are those that go on off the field.