Monday Morning Sentimonies: Forgot About O’Day

Nowadays, everybody wanna talk like they got something to say

But nothing comes out when they move their lips

Just a bunch of gibberish

And people act like they forgot about O’Day

In the wake of free agency there is an epidemic of amnesia going around. Somehow people who just 3 months ago were praising Jemery O’Day for building a championship roster are now complaining that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I assume I am preaching to the choir here, as if you are able to tolerate my drivel it means you are most likely an educated fan (or a gluten for punishment, I appreciate your support either way). But I feel like I need to put a reminder out there to the football world that O’Day does in fact know what he is doing.

Do I like the outward migration of talent we just endured? Absolutely not. Tough to see starters like Allen, Carney, and Reavis or role players like Baldonado and Nield go. But maybe we can just breathe for a second before mashing the panic button like me when I used to play Mortal Kombat. We have our work cut out for us to replace what we lost. But O’Day and his team have a pretty solid track record of scouting talent. 

Don’t believe me? Consider this…

-        Half of the Grey Cup roster was guys that O’Day brought to the CFL.

-        Half of the starters on the Grey Cup roster were guys that O’Day brought to the CFL.

-        16 of the 21 Canadians we dressed in that game (5 of which were starters) were O’Day draft picks.

I’ll note that this doesn’t include O'Day guys who were on IR like K Johnson, D Johnson, Duncan-Busby, Avery, Korte-Moore and Robustelli who have contributed significantly.

We have had a consistent pipeline of American talent under O’Day’s watch: Reavis, Milligan, Reid, Collins, Brammer, K Johnson, Myers, Saunders, Brooks, Miller, Lanier, Avery, Sterns, Robertson, Marino (yeah he was a douche but he had talent through the roof). 

O’Day has drafted well. Emilus, Korte-Moore, Wiebe, Busby, Saad, Ford, Fry, Lokombo (I mean he starts), Kian Schaefer-Baker, Allen, Dalke, Bertrand-Hudon, Straker, D Johnson, Ajou. The last 7 names on that list were drafted in the fourth round or later. 

Hell, O’Day has even found top end global talent like Korsak and Baldonado.

Still don’t believe me? Look across the league at how many guys that O’Day originally recruited now fill the rosters of other teams. 

BC

-        James Butler

-        Justin McInnis

-        Deontai Williams

Edmonton

-        Joe Robustelli

Calgary

-        Miles Brown

-        Tevin Jones

-        Damon Webb

Toronto

-        Demarcus Christmas

-        Jake Herslow

Hamilton

-        Charbel Dabire

-        Jake Dolegala

-        Braxton Hill

-        Trevor Reid

Montreal

-        Alexander Gagne

-        Jereth Sterns

Ottawa

-        AJ Allen

-        Habakkuk Baldonado

-        CJ Reavis

-        CJ Coldon

-        Amari Henderson

This list doesn’t even include free agents that O’Day signed when they were so-so and he turned into hot commodities like Tommy Nield, Malik Carney and Jake Maier.

So, while there are definitely some holes currently on our roster, we should have at least a shred of faith in the guy running the team. 

Let’s end how we started.

Now you wanna run around talkin' 'bout scouts like I ain't got none

What, you think I fired 'em all 'cause I stay well off?

Now all I get is hate mail all day sayin' O’Day fell off

What, 'cause I been on my phone with guys that find the endzone

Tryna get this damn repeat off?

Monday Morning Sentimonies: CFL Valentines

This past Saturday was Valentine’s Day. And if that is news to you it might explain the bad mood your significant other has mysteriously been in.

In honour of St. Valentine’s Day I present to you, the Top 10 CFL Valentine Cards

10. 

9. 

8. 

7. 

6. 

5. 

4. 

3. 

2. 

1. 

Monday Evening Sentimonies: Free Agency

Free agency official opens tomorrow. Which means that we get to confirm all the things that were leaked out during legal tampering. Which is really just all the things that were sorted out during illegal tampering… which totally does not happen (wink, wink). 

We already know the Riders’ roster is taking some hits. Starters like Reavis, Allen and Carney as well as depth guys like Maeir, Baldonado, Nield and Robustelli are all gone. To compensate we will be adding James Vaughters, James Letcher (a very dangerous returner) and Josh Woods (veteran depth at LB). 

So what does this all mean for the Riders?

Well before people start their annual freak out that O’Day does nothing remember a) the most active teams in free agency are the crappiest teams and b) O’Day has already successfully extended 22 of our pending free agents. He put in the bulk of his work before free agency in trying to keep together as much of the core as possible. This includes top end talent like Emilus, Campbell and Johnson. So yes losing guys like Carney, Allen and Reavis sucks but its not end of the world. O’Day has done a great job of building depth. The development of guys like Brooks and Miller are factors in letting Allen and Reavis go.

Defensive end still concerns me at this point. Vaughters helps but he is 5-6 sack a year guy. Great for the rotation but not the guy. Him and Korte-Moore are currently our most decorated ends. If the Riders signed me I would be tied for 3^rd most CFL sacks by a defensive end. We have brought in a ton of new recruits and obviously hope one or 2 pan out but its far from a guarantee. But other than that I don’t see us as having major holes in the roster. Depth is a concern … but we also went from ridiculous depth to not as much so the level of concern is relative.

The biggest news was a release, not a signing. The Brett Lauther era is over. It will go down as a storied career of someone who was great on and off the field. But football is a cruel sport and as so often happens, rather than a heroes send off he gets unceremoniously dumped. Dumped for very good reasons but dumped nonetheless. To me the most shocking thing is not that we cut ties… its that we cut ties after sticking with him so long. If we still believed in him at the end of last season then I did not see us moving on now. I have nothing but respect for Lauther. From his humble beginnings of 18 years spent on practice rosters before getting his shot to even on his worst days never shying away from holding himself accountable in the media. His integrity and perseverance are commendable.  

We appear to be going American as we have now signed 2 American kickers. Be interesting to see how that plays out. You may say it can’t get worse than Lauther was last season, but to you I say… Campbell Fair. So forgive my concern. 

I am still holding out hope that we can keep CJ Avery. But I guess we will see how it goes.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Who You Be Tampering With?

**Editors note: I already had to rewrite this completely because 4 things happened that rendered the majority of my post irrelevant. Odds are good that will happen again between when I hit post and when you read this. Its not my fault CFL managers don't take my schedule into account when making moves.**

Its tampering season across the CFL as teams frantically make calls to try and woo potential free agents. They are about one step away from Tinder.

The opening hours were not exactly kind to the Riders. As often happens to the champions, other teams came looking to raid our shelves. And raid they did. Edmonton drove a truck of money up to Carney’s doorstep and took Robustelli for good measure. Ottawa took AJ Allen, Baldonado, Reavis and Maier. And Winnipeg took Tommy Nield. And that’s just what happened so far. 

On the positive side we did manage took lock up Ouelette and Rose just prior to free agency. On the less positive side we also managed to lock up Fields (because of what I can only assume is a league-imposed handicap to level the competitive landscape). 

So the question becomes, with Carney and Allen out of the picture what is O’Day doing with his tampering time? The answer may surprise you… very little. Or at least very little in terms of things most people would find interesting. He might be more active on actual Tinder than CFL Free Agent Tinder. He did most of his work up to now just retaining the core group of last year. Other than Carney and Allen he really managed to maintain all his impact starters… as well as Lokombo and Fields for some reason. We don’t have many major roster holes and more importantly we have no money to fill those holes we do have. We will be relying heavily on drafting and recruiting for the most part. 

I do think one think O’Day is doing is keeping in touch with our pending free agents. In particular CJ Avery. People forget that Avery was the starter until he got hurt and Allen stepped in a became a star. If we can keep him it will somewhat soften the sting of Allen and Reavis’ loss. 

But tampering with your own players is boring. You probably want the dirt on what other players O’Day is tampering with. I figure he’s looking at the following priority areas: 

D-Ends –  The one thing O'Day did was address our most glaring need. As much as the current "sign 20 rookie D-ends and hope 1 pans out" strategy is one way to appraoch things, we simply could not enter the season with Korte-Moore being our most experienced D-end. James Vaughters has history with this coaching staff given his time in Calgary so he was an obvious name that was on my radar and obviously O'Day's. Lorenzo Mauldin is a name we could explore. Maybe Shane Ray even sticks around. The market got thin real quick though so it might be Vaughters, Korte-Moore and hope we recruit well. 

O-line Depth – Much like last year where we added McEwen and Gagnon (I am not sure the difference between hype of signings and actual impact was that stark since Chris Jones’ free agent class in 2016), you know O’Day is always looking to add OL depth.  Names like Landon Rice, a second go round for Ryan Sceviour or even Gagnon and McEwen again are options. 

Receiver – With Johnson, Baker and Emilus plus our solid depth at Canadian WR, we don’t need a veteran receiver. But with Myers, Bane and Robustelli all going at once we do have room for a value add. Charleston Rambo, Dominique Rhymes, Luther Hakunavanuh, Steven Dunbar. Hell I would not even rule us having a conversation with Dalton Shoen (though given his injury status, a signing would likely be a ways away). The money for receivers dries up real quick once the top guys sign so there could be some sneaky value for the patient