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.