Riders Trim Players List

This past weekend I found myself at a sports memorabilia show in Regina where once you got past the hockey card collections, and they kicked the living daylight out of whatever flock I was able to collect as a kid, there was some fun Rider stuff.

I picked up a whack of Rider media guides from the 1970s and 1980s with an eye of constructing a collection starting from 1976 to the present.

You may wonder why the interest in old media guides but as an occasional fill in sports reporter, it was interesting to see how the Riders organized their information and how badly they needed an editor. The quality has picked up over the last 15 years, but what I do, since I collect jerseys, is figure out who might have been playing for the Riders when I picked up their jersey and they didn’t have a name on the back.

The prize of the trip was, not surprisingly, another jersey. But this time it was Kent Austin’s practice jersey autographed by the second best quarterback in Rider history. When Darian Durant moves past Austin in the team record book or collects another Grey Cup, then he moves to second.

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So now I am writing this wearing this piece of Rider history and feeling the urge to push myself.

What separates Austin from the roll call of deadbeats, drug addicts and poor college competition was that Austin took the game seriously and demanded the offense get on the same page. It was a search and struggle for excellence and when the Riders clicked, Austin once said it was like playing against air.

The reason why I bring this up is Chris Jones strikes me as being the same sort of leader interested in nothing but the best he, his staff and players can do.

I saw one comment on one of the fan sites that noted Chris Jones is running the Riders like an NFL club – a step up in professionalism and dedication to fielding the best team.

The Riders held their mini-camp at Dodgertown in Florida which, between the open tryout and the regularly scheduled drills ,featured the Riders staff looking at roughly 200 players. Even after the experience of that camp, featuring  radio shows and the Riders communications department posting videos, the Riders coaching and management continued to go on the road, hitting places like Kansas City before announcing 10 players being cut today.

The reason for the cuts is that the Riders are over the limit for roster sizes in the pre-season and I would expect more as we hear through social media of more players being approached to either go to a mini-camp or regular training camp.

One of the gaping holes being faced by Chris Jones and John Murphy, the player personnel guru of the Calgary Stampeders, was Canadian talent and getting players on offense and defense that were bigger.

I’ve been doing the elliptical machine this week while watching Rider games from last season that I taped, starting from the beginning of the season.

A few things hit me:
1.    The Riders could not play defense because Rider head coach Cory Chamblin could not coach defense. Chamblin got rid of Richie Hall in an ego move and found out he was totally clueless on how to coach the young players in the new rules of not contact past five yards.
2.    Weston Dressler has lost a step. Or maybe it was his lack of size that caught up for him. In the right scheme, I have no doubt that Dressler can contribute, but after watching four games, I have seen too many passes go through Dressler’s hands or bounce off him for interceptions. Dressler didn’t have the height to go up for the big reception and got squeezed out by bigger defensive backs. On further review, other than a few moments, Dressler hasn’t been the same since he went to the NFL in 2014.
When Chris Jones took over the Riders, he gutted the team with 19 cuts and then the double whammy of Dressler and John Chick being released because they were not competing at the level they were being paid. Today the cuts were a combination of young Canadians on the Rider roster from last year and guys who didn’t impress at the mini camps.

Gone are National running back Melvin Abankwah;  International linebacker Denicos Allen; International wide receiver Michael Campbell;  International offensive lineman Quinterrius Eatmon;  International defensive lineman Ryan Jones;  International linebacker DeDe Lattimore;  International linebacker DJ Lynch;  International defensive back Robert Sands;  International offensive lineman Joseph Treadwell and  National defensive lineman Brandon Tennant.

The most notable surprise is Tennant who saw some action on the field as a lower round draft pick. After the Riders went stupid by sending Keith Shologan and Zach Evans to Ottawa in the expansion draft, they decided to draft some late round Canadian picks and have them learn on the job.

Then again I hear conditioning was an issue with Tennant and the Riders have been going on a spree of picking up undrafted Canadians. This is a reasonable approach considering the limited number of draft picks the Riders have.
One of those pick-ups is Randy Roseway of St. Francis Xavier, a wide receiver you can google who was not drafted last year, stayed another year in university and has the ability to jump and is apparently six feet tall. This is another Canadian, like the running back the Riders signed from the UBC Thunderbird CIS Champions.

A couple of years ago at the Rider AGM I asked then Rider GM Brendan Taman about scouting and he made some noise about investing more in scouting.  The difference between then and now is the Riders are spending the money in scouting and running multiple camps to be thorough in finding the best players for this team.

This is money the Riders will make back in merchandize and ticket sales as the team turns its record around. There are few players recognizable on the roster from last year, and no guarantee those still on the roster will retain their jobs when the Riders go into training camp.

Another player to keep your eye on is Alex Singleton, a linebacker from Montana State who got his dual citizenship after the NFL passed him by except for some training camp appearances. If the Riders are interested, Singleton looks like he can step up and be a good player.

The Riders still have moves to make, but I have to admire the hard work and persistence of the Rider brain trust and I have some optimism. No one will be outworking this team this year.