Monday Morning Sentimonies: Let The Cuts Begin

Sunday marked the start of the easiest part of any coach’s job… the cuts. Teams had to be down to 65 players (plus non-counters) on Sunday which meant the first round of cuts had to be handed down.

Here is the list of cuts with a brief commentary from yours truly:

DB Dominic Noel – No surprise. He was out of his league.

DB TJ Rushing – I liked his first name… but that was about it.

RB Demetrius Crawford – Given the quality of the other RBs in camp, as a smaller shifty back, Crawford needed to be off the charts good to earn a roster spot. Realistically I thought he may have a shot at the practice roster at best. 

WR Jason Chery – Fresh off me finally learning how to spell his last name, Chery gets cut early (so much wasted effort). Many are surprised by the move after Chery’s impressive TD grab in the preseason game but he ends up being a victim of the numbers game. With only a few import reviver spots on the roster somebody had to go and with the likes of Harper, Hill, Baker (assuming he ever heels up enough to practice), Moss, Sanders and Smith in the mix Chery was the odd man out. Personally I would have cut Smith ahead of Chery but obviously the coaches saw it differently.

RB Nathan Riva – He was a CIS RB who we auditioned at receiver in an effort in increase competition at that spot. Quite frankly if he would have made the team it would have been an extremely poor reflection of the quality of our Canadian receivers no named Bagg or Getzalf.

DL Renaldo Sagesse – This was Taman’s lone piss poor attempt at building depth behind Shologan. I didn’t like this signing to begin with. Thank god Zach Evans appears to be developing into something serviceable.

DL Curtis Gatewood – I’ll assume the fact that I know nothing about Gatewood means that this was a logical decision.

DL Boo Robinson – Like Gabe Nyenhuis and Ikenna Ike before him, Boo Robinson was an unfortunate victim of a Rider Prophet endorsement. My apologies. You’d think by now I would have started using my powers for good and not evil (I sense an official Jordan Sisco endorsement coming on). It’s sad though… I was really looking forward to being able to yell Booooooooooooo Robinson

LB Chris Graham – The highest profile of all the cuts. After Barrin Simpson’s retirement he was virtually handed the starting MLB spot for this year… at leats until Chamblain decided to go Canadian there at which point Graham’s stock plummeted. Graham is a decent LB: good run stopper, talented pass rusher but his fatal flaw is that his pass coverage skills are not very good. The only place you can really hide a LB who can’t pass cover in the CFL is at MLB and with that spot being dedicated to a Canadian, we really had no use for Graham anymore.

The Riders also signed a big DT named Jay Alford who was a part of the 2007 Super Bowl Champion NY Giants. Instinctively I am weary of a guy whose name contains “Al Ford”.

Friday Roundup: Preseason Game 1

Riders 10 – BC 44

Well the Riders are lucky that I was so football starved after the off-season that that that sorry excuse for a game was enough to satisfy me. It’s kinda sad when you think about it.

For those of you concerned about the results of a preseason game (especially the first one) calm the hell down or I will be forced to slap you! Its preseason… wins and losses are meaningless! Here’s a piece of history for you:

-       Between 2009 and 2010 we lost all 4 of our preseason games by a combined score of 65 to 132 and ended up in the Grey Cup both years

-       In 2008 and 2011 we actually won a preseason game but ’08 resulted in the whole Michael Bishop fiasco and ’11 resulted in… a gong show so severe that all the whiskey in world could not suppress the horrifying memory of (believe me I tried).

So forgive me for not being concerned about the end results of a preseason game. The purpose of the preseason game is to evaluate players and to that end I think it served its purpose.

That said, I am not naïve enough to think everything in Rider-land is all rainbows and lollipops. There were some definite areas of concern. I am just saying we should wait until we have all of our starters and use all of our playbook before we start writing off the season. Half the people I was swearing at on Wednesday will be cut soon anyways.

Here are my thoughts on the game

-       Would have liked to have seen more from Durant but a) it was his first action in many months, b) he was missing the talented portion of his OL (aside from Picard) and c) wasn’t using the full play book. He’ll get better

-       First 2 backup QBs did a whole lot of nothing. Brown in particular disappointed me because I have high expectations of him. You can tell Brown has the arm but he will need to show a lot more than that.

-       Drew Wily on the other hand leapfrogged himself back into the QB competition after lagging behind all training camp. He had a real nice 4^th quarter. Granted it was against BC’s soon to be unemployed but he showed good instincts, kept cool and made plays when the play broke down and most importantly moved the ball. Still think he is behind the other 2 but certainly is making a strong case for consideration. I would love to see him and Brown overtake old man O’Sullivan.

-       BC games will forever be painful for me to watch because there are constant in your face reminders that the Riders consciously passed on Shawn Gore in favour of Jordan Sisco.

-       Offense was utter garbage until the 4^th quarter with the exception of that beauty run by Sheets. I have long predicted that one of Sheets or Rankin would be our starter and West’s only chance was as a back-up/returner… Wednesday confirmed that and made me actually excited about our running game.

-       Seriously BC? An illegal trick sleeper play in the preseason? At what point did this seem like a good idea?

-       Alexander Krausnick-Groh continues to impress me. I think he is underrated in what he brings to this team as a quality back-up.

-       Graig Newman looked lost out there. I seriously question the decision to give him reps on the corner… he is suited for a safety but is out of his element on the edges.

-       Pass rush was a bit concerning given that 3 of BC’s starters are currently injured.  Hopefully things will improve when Shologan, George and Willis get in there.

-       Noticed that the equipment managers got lazy and only put Gagne on Kevin Regimbald-Gagne’s jersey. Guess they told him he’d have to pick only one name for the jersey. Apologies to the Regimbalds.

-       Glen Suitor was back in fine form. My personal favourites were when he claimed that the roof being open was Mike Benevides’ way showing its his team not Wally’s and his claim that Chris Getzlaf will be a 1400 yard receiver. It really makes you wonder if Suitor should be examined for long-term affects of repeated head injuries from his playing days.

-       I wonder if Stu Foord misses the standing ovations every time he touches the ball regardless of how meaningless the play is? Won’t get that treatment in BC.

-       Why oh why do Offensive Coordinators ever call for an empty backfield on 1^st and goal from 5 or less!?!? Doug Berry was notorious for it and Dyce did it too… that one time were we inadvertently found the redzone (luckily for him it resulted in a passing TD). I still despise that formation. At a minimum give the illusion that you are considering running.

Guys who improved their odds of making the team: Kory Sheets, Zach Evans, Terrell Maze, Sam Hurl, Patrick Brown (nothing spectacular but always caught the ball), and Jason Chery (who I just discovered has only one R in his last name)

Guys who may have fund their way onto the cut list: Eddie Russ, Booooooo Robinson, Dan Clark and my pick for surprise camp casualty: Tristan Jackson.

Brendan Taman Gets An Extension

Over the weekend the Riders announced that they had signed GM Brendan Taman to a 1 year contract extension. Now anyone who has followed me for any length of time knows that I am one of Taman’s biggest detractors. I didn’t like him in Winnipeg and I have hated him ever since he showed up here as Tillman’s errand boy while he was on house arrest.

In light of my overtly anti-Taman views, it should come as no surprise that I absolutely hated this news. However, what was more concerning was how this news was received by the general public… People loved it, thought it was a great move, thought Taman deserved this. Mrs. Prophet can attest to how rattled I was by this. I realize that some of you like Taman (and that’s your right… at least until I assume absolute power and become overlord of the future kingdom of Prophetoria and remove such rights) but even people who like him should be able to see how this move lacks any shred of logic.

And when the masses are so misguided that I can scarcely fathom how they managed not to drown in their morning cereal let alone log onto the interweb and post their thoughts, its time for another edition of Addressing Uninformed Opinions aka Everyone Is Stupid But Me

Everyone Is Stupid But Me: Brendan Taman Edition

Uninformed Opinion #1: This move makes sense

This move makes zero sense! Back in November when the Riders were deciding a GM to replace Ken Miller I wrote these words:

So if we are really that certain that Taman is qualified to do this job why not lock him up for 3 years?

Thing is they didn’t. They decided to make him prove himself during the final year of his contract rather than commit to him and his plan. Suddenly 7 months later we decide he should get one more year despite the fact that he has proven absolutely nothing. We either should have committed to him for 3 years back in November (a move I would have hated but at least would have seen the logic in) or waited until August to at least see if any of the moves Taman made actually resulted in a competitive football team. Instead we did neither and just randomly extended him by one year a move that neither shows full confidence in Taman or makes him prove anything to earn it.

Also, why just 1 year? Coach Chamblain is locked up for 3 so if Hopson is really confident in everything Taman is doing then why not lock up Taman for the same length? Either Taman is the right man and we should commit 100% to him (again a move I would hate but would at least see the logic in) or we still doubt him and should maybe wait until we play a freaking game with our rookie coach and team that is 50% new guys before making a decision. Stupidly Hopson ended up somewhere in the middle where he shows neither full confidence nor concern with Taman. Pick one!

Zero sense!

Uninformed Opinion #2: Taman Deserves This

BASED ON WHAT?!?!?!?! How well we practice? How many big name former NFLers we have brought in? The fact that Taman clearly can’t afford such luxuries as personal grooming and obviously needed the money?

There is zero evidence to show that this team is any better than we were in the depths of last year.  There is potential, there is hope, there is excitement but forgive me for wanting to see a bit more than that before I start extolling the greatness of Taman.  If potential, hope and excitement all ensured performance, Man in the Bush would likely not have endured as much mockery from the ladies over his love making abilities.

Some of the more ridiculous statements I have heard are that the hiring of Chamblain was enough to earn Taman the extension or the signing of Picard and Labatte were reason enough. Do you people even think before you speak?!? So because Taman hired a rookie coach with no previous experience (and who last season was the defensive coordinator of the 3^rd worst defense in the CFL) that is a definite sign that he is the best GM ever? And everyone knows that the odds of winning a Grey Cup increase proportional to your free agent spending right?

Look I’m as excited about the upcoming season as anybody. I like what I have seen from Chamblain and, other than depth concerns at a couple positions, I like the players we have brought into camp BUT the fact remains that we have no clue how this team will do this season. We may be good or we may suck. So I think it’s a bit ridiculous to just blindly assume that Taman has assembled nothing but allstars and our spot in the 100^th Grey Cup is all but assured when we haven’t even played a snap of preseason ball let alone the real thing.

For anyone saying this extension was well deserved by Taman give your head a shake! 

Had this been done in July or August it would have made sense. Obviously this decision couldn’t wait until the end of the season as the GM needs to be thinking about scouting and extensions for next year. And by then we would have had some actual evidence to support such an extension.  

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Yay For Camp!

So I finally, finally made it to training camp last night. Man did it make me happy to be back in the stands! In what is likely a good sign, no one jumped off the page a mandatory add to my cut list. Though that just meant I had to get creative with reasons while I feel people should be cut :)

I was so excited to actually see football that I will reserve my anger fueled rant on the Taman contract extension until tomorrow and focus on things that make me happy. Here are my random observations

- No Chris Best so Neufeld was taking his reps. Word is Best is out 2 weeks.

- Also didn't see Brackenridge at all so he must have been nursing something.


- When they were practicing punt returns the guys getting reps at returner were West, Cherry, Sanders, Tristan Jackson and Moss. Moss has insanely muscular legs (i mean that in the straightest way possible)

- Starting receivers were Dressler, Getzalf and Hill inside with Bagg and Taj Smith at wideout

- West was the starting RB, Rankin #2. I really like the look of Rankin. Big guy, moves well. Can't wait to see him in a game.

- Getzlaf was trying pretty hard out there... doesn't he know he already got his big money deal? :)

- Wes Cates was in the stands watching along with the rest of us. I assume he was secretly hoping for an RB or 2 to blow a knee out. No such luck Wes.

- Odell Willis never stops yelling, seriously... never. Maybe the whole DUI thing was just a misunderstanding. Maybe he was yelling like that when they pulled him over and they just assumed he was drunk.

- Can't remember the last time we had 4 white LBs (Hurl, Regimbald, McCullough, Huclack). That's gotta be some kind of record... not a good one but hey a record is a record.

- Jason Cherry had a couple nice catches can't see him cracking the starting line-up but he may stick on as a back-up.

- Mick Williams had a nice knockdown at the line of scrimmage. For now he is backing up Curious George.

- Terrell Maze saw a lot of reps at practice and didn't look that bad.

- We are seeing a lot of different coverages in the secondary than we are used to. Saw Frazier lined up at CB more than a few time. I expect we will see a lot more man coverage under Chamblain and play match-ups.

All in all is was a high tempo, well organized camp that got be super pumped for the upcoming season. 

Friday Roundup: The Illustrious Career of Dwayne Jarrett

The oddest story coming out of camp this is week by far is the “retirement” of Dwayne Jarrett. I use the term retirement loosely because I’m pretty sure you actually have to do something before you can retire. Jarrett’s “retirement” from the CFL is about equivalent to me retiring from my career in biochemical engineering.

The irony of Jarrett’s time as Rider is that if the stories about him taking 6 planes to get here are to be believed, Jarrett likely spent more time in airports trying to get to Regina than he actually spent in the city itself. His career timeline is so compact it would fit in a fortune cookie:

May 11 – Signs with Riders

Jun 2 – Arrives in Regina (after missing all of rookie camp)

Jun 3 – Participates in his only day of practice. Injures his foot at some point

Jun 7 – Retires

His stay with the Riders was so brief it makes Joe McGrath look not so bad by comparison. In the end Dwayne Jarrett will have about as much an impact on this team as Double J Jeff Jarrett.

One thing to keep in mind though, because Jarrett retired as opposed to being cut, we retain his rights for the duration of his 2 year contract. Although the odds may seem slim at this point, this does leave the window open for a future return. Also, I’m still not entirely convinced that this just isn’t a way to free up a training camp spot until Jarrett is healthy. Plenty of players have “retired” their way through training camp… Bob Cameron made a career out of it.

Its tradition on the blog to salute prominent members of the Riders who retire and with that in mind I present my Top 5 Dwayne Jarrett Memories:

5 – Jarrett Signs/Prophet Makes DUI Joke

Any time someone makes my job easier I really appreciate it.

4 – Six Planes To Get Here

I know Regina isn’t exactly a bustling metropolis but unless you are starting from a remote village in Ethiopia you should be able to get here in less than six flights. Next time I recommend Mr. Jarrett look into a travel agent. Then again maybe he just really likes accumulating frequent flyer miles.

3 – Team Picture Day

2 – Making An Impression On The Coach

After all the wait and hype, Jarrett finally took to the field for what would turn out to be his only practice. Fans (many of whom had already penciled him in as a starter/perennial all-star) were eagerly awaiting what would no doubt be a display of pure awesomeness from the former NFL second rounder. Unfortunately reality fell slightly short of expectations. This was reinforced after practiced when the media asked coach Chamblain about Jarrett’s performance. The response… “I never really noticed him “

It would turn out to be the nicest thing anyone said about Jarrett.

1 – Lasting Memory

When I think of Jarrett as a Rider this will be the image that is forever in mind.

*** I was actually going to make tribute video to Jarrett on Youtube but it pretty much would have just been this picture and a bunch star wipes. If you just look at this picture while playing Sara McLachlan’s I Will Remember You in the background, you can get pretty much the same effect.***