The CFL is back, and we’re looking at a team a day leading up to regular-season kickoff on June 23. Today, the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The 2015 CFL season was more than enough to turn Green and White fans red in the face. The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ league-worst 3-15 record cost a lot of people their jobs, chief among them head coach Corey Chamblin and general manager Brendan Taman.
The Riders then threw a lot of money and not one or two, but three big job descriptions at 2015 Grey Cup champion head coach Chris Jones, luring him to Regina with the task of resurrecting Saskatchewan’s beloved football team.
Officially introduced as VP, GM and head coach on Dec. 7, it didn’t take long for Jones to start retooling the roster. Eight days after the 49-year-old was hired, Saskatchewan announced the release of 19 players. Just over a month later two long-time pillars of the franchise were cut: Weston Dressler and John Chick.
Riderville was stunned, but that was a sure sign Jones and his new regime were interested in winning above everything else. Popularity be damned—Jones’s style is to compete all out each day and he’ll do exactly what he thinks he has to in order to get his new team back to the playoffs as fast as possible, not someday down the road.
And he’s got some familiar faces around for the task at hand. When Jones switched from Eskimo to Rider green, he brought with him most of his coaching staff and landed some familiar players. including playmaking running back and return man Kendial Lawrence, 2015 Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian receiver Shamawd Chambers, national offensive lineman Andrew Jones and strong-side linebacker/defensive back Otha Foster.
Team outlook | Saskatchewan Roughriders |
---|---|
2015 record | 3-15 (5th in West) |
Incoming players | Justin Capicciotti (DE), Otha Foster (LB), Ed Gainey (DB), Kendial Lawrence (RB/KR) |
Outgoing players | Weston Dressler (WR), Ryan Smith (SB), John Chick (DE), Levy Adcock (OL) |
Bringing Foster to the Riders was vital as Jones tries to remake the team’s defence on the fly. The 27-year-old is in the prime of his career and plays the toughest spot on defence in the Canadian game. And Foster can help teach and show the players what Jones expects out of his defenders.
Jones also acquired Shawn Lemon and Canadian Justin Capicciotti to play at the defensive end spots, Corvey Irvin on the interior, Greg Jones as the anchor at middle linebacker and Graig Newman at safety.
Linebacker Jeff Knox Jr., who made 114 tackles as a rookie, and defensive back Tyree Hollins are the only major contributors from 2015 still on the defensive depth chart.
Led by Jones, the Riders scouting staff—including assistant vice presidents of football operations John Murphy and Jeremy O’Day—set out to bring size and length to Saskatchewan. That said, no matter how big or small the player, there’s one trait the Riders’ VP, GM and head coach values above all.
“I’m a big change-of-direction guy,” Jones says. “We’re looking for players [on defence] that can flip and turn and get back to full speed, and [who] can play more than one position—versatility.”
“Change of direction” might as well be the theme for this year’s Riders. While defensive guru Jones’s Eskimos allowed a league-low 18.9 points per game last year, his new team gave up a league-high 31.3.
More 2016 CFL season previews: BC Lions; Calgary Stampeders; Edmonton Eskimos; Winnipeg Blue Bombers; Hamilton Tiger-Cats; Toronto Argonauts; Ottawa Redblacks; keep checking back for more as the regular season approaches
And as important as it is for Saskatchewan to drastically improve on defence, nothing trumps keeping Darian Durant healthy. The 33-year-old is 54-43-1 in his 98 career starts, 18th all-time in CFL passing yards and guided the Riders to a 2013 Grey Cup championship. But he’s suffered two consecutive season-ending injuries—he missed the final eight games of the 2015 campaign with a torn right elbow tendon and then ruptured his left Achilles in the opening game of the 2016 season.
Even though Jones was quick to let go of the past with Dressler and Chick, he let it be known this off-season that keeping Durant was as important to him as re-stocking the roster with national talent.
“You’ve got to have a quarterback and Canadian content to have success in this league,” Jones says.
“National” and “depth” were two words not used in the same sentence for Saskatchewan a year ago as home-grown talent was thin in the prairies. That’s not the case anymore, though, as Capicciotti, Newman, Jones, Chambers and incoming running back Matt Walter each have previous CFL starting experience.
That improved non-import depth, Durant able and upright all year and a Jones-coached defence could be a recipe for a turnaround season in Riderville—the last at old Mosaic Stadium.