2016 Rider Pre-Season Starts Saturday!

We will see what Crapniga has as the Riders look to start rebuilding and this should be interesting. Calgary had him on their practice roster for most of this season for a good reason, hopefully. The Riders got Keith Lewis, a negotiation list player from Calgary in the trade, but released him to pursue NFL opportunities. He is apparently still on the Rider neg list, but needless to say, that didn’t go over well in the city that rhymes with fun.

The Rider musical chair parade of players continued with Stephen Houston, a running back formerly with the Steelers and Patriots, signed with the team. Anthony Allen has been getting the first step reps, but expect to see Houston in at some point.

At quarterback the Riders will start Brett Smith, with Keith Price backing up and perhaps seeing action. The Riders released Hutson Mason; apparently he has a young wife who did not like what she considered winter chill but we call a typical Saskatchewan fall day. The Riders resigned Blake Simms, formerly of the Alabama Crimson Tide and Toronto Argonauts, who is now, number three and may see some action in the final game against Montreal.

In other quarterback news, Tajh Boyd was released by Winnipeg for off-field issues and was promptly picked up by Montreal, who I believe released, him to begin with. Montreal traded for Kevin Glenn which came after I posted last week and he only had a day of practice as he sucked in Montreal’s loss to Hamilton. Glenn had his contract renewed for next season, so Montreal now has a raft of quarterbacks who may shake loose and that gets very interesting for the off-season.

The search for the next Rider brain trust is somewhat on hold, although former Rider president and lottery salesman Tom Shepherd said he had been told a superstar candidate had put in for one of the Rider jobs.

The rumor of John Hufnagel is still persistent enough that reporter Cam Cole felt obligated to comment on it from his vantage point of Vancouver saying there is nothing to it. I wouldn’t expect to hear anything otherwise until after the season, although John Murphy, the Stampeders personnel guy is apparently a free agent after this season. The Rider media elite in Regina are beating the drums in favor of Jeremy O’ Day, not as much for Bob Dyce, but most of the Rider media elite is made up of former Rider players who played with O’Day.

Not sure how the Riders should proceed, but I’m not stupid to think this will or should be settled before the Grey Cup. I probably wouldn’t or shouldn’t expect anything until Christmas if the Riders are serious about doing due diligence in searching for a new combo.

So while everyone is cheering for the Blue Jays, I do not because of how Rogers Communications has screwed over the Toronto Argonauts. The lame excuses given by Rogers and its apologists for why they have bumped the Argos from the Sky Dome (I believe it is called another name but if you want respect, you have to give it and Rogers have not given the CFL any respect so screw them) were first addressed by Sandy Annunziata the Argos color commentator in former Raider now Rider Voice Rod Pedersen. He felt the CFL should have stood up for the team. Now I hear that outgoing owner David Braley, who gutted the Argos marketing staff and have the Argos assistant coaches as the lowest paid in the league, is thinking of suing Rogers for damages. That would warm my heart, although the sooner Braley is gone from the league, the better.

So this week we have Montreal at Toronto at Hamilton. Scott Milanovich should get coach of the year for putting up with this crap and Kevin Glenn should be in better shape with more than just one week of practice. The problem is that Glenn is good when it doesn’t count, but the Argos have problems of their own in the back side of the defense. But then again, they beat Glenn twice this season when he was with the Riders. Montreal plays better at home, but they aren’t technically at the Argos home as well and the big question is whether the Argos will top the 3500 fans that showed up last time? Montreal 25, Toronto 24.

Hamilton goes to BC and the education of Jeff Matthews continues at QB for the Tiger-Cats. BC probably has the better skilled back up in John Jennings, but Hamilton has the more complete team and while BC has made life interesting for people the last few weeks, including themselves, Hamilton is more complete and while I can see a pick six made against Hamilton, Hamilton will hammer another nail into the Lions coffin. Zoey the Magnificent Himalayan whom I serve has no dog in this fight; they are both feline teams but any team that mentions cats twice deserves her respect. Hamilton 30-22 over BC.

Ottawa goes to Winnipeg and this game I have problems with. Ottawa has not shown it has the mental toughness to seize first place and is acting on second thought as a typical second year team, which means I should lay off imposing standards such as mental toughness. They go to Winnipeg and Winnipeg has been snake bit the last few weeks. Last week they lost by three, but you could argue Winnipeg made it closer than it was in garbage time. I would pick Ottawa based on better performance so far this season, but on further review, every time I thought Ottawa would advance based on previous performance, it craps the bed. And Winnipeg is the place where crapping in the bed is considered foreplay. Winnipeg 27-26.

Edmonton goes to Saskatchewan and yeah, preseason has started early for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Riders are mixing and matching who is on the practice roster versus who is likely coming back next year. If the Riders win, I would have the Eskimos tested for sexually transmitted diseases and drug abuse to explain such stupidity. Then again, the Eskimos have narrowly won six games this year, which means either they have reached the level of a team that has learned to win ugly, or they can be beat. Personally, I think Edmonton can be beat but this is an exhibition level team from Saskatchewan we are seeing so let’s let sobriety and safe sexual practices kick in and say Edmonton 28-21.

by Riderville

2016 Rider Pre-Season Starts Saturday!

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